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CAPE HORN.— page 43. 



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BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY HENRY HOYT 

NO. 9 COENHILL. 



A VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 



CONTENTS. 



I. 

OiiTWARD Bomn> • • . . 9-36 

n. 

Cape Horn . 37-49 

III. 
California. — The Sandwich Islands. — Hong Kong . . 50-62 

IV. 
Canton. — Shanghai.— Singapore.— Macao .... 63-112 

V. 
Manela. — Homeward Bound ..•...,. 113-152 




%M%^l$f 




A VOYAGE AEOUND THE WOELD. 



OUTWARD BOUND. 

He travels, and I too : I tread his deck, 
Ascend his topmast • through his peering eyes 
Discover countries ; with a kindred heart 
Suffer his woes, and share in his escapes ; 
While Fancy, like the finger of a clock, 
Runs the great circuit, and is still at home. 

COWPER. 

^^HERE are so many running to and 
^ fro, and knowledge is thereby so in- 
creased, that I doubted, at first, if 
my friends did well to ask me to write for 
publication an account of my voyage. But I 
considered that impressions made on every 
new observer add something to the already 
large information of intelligent readers, be- 
sides reviving agreeable recollections. The 




10 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

thought that I may suggest to some friend 
in need of long rest one means of finding 
it, or encourage him to adopt it, leads me 
to give, as requested, the following nar- 
rative. 

The writer, having been ill in the early 
part of 1869, was advised by physicians and 
friends to try the effect of foreign travel; 
but in what direction it was difficult to de- 
cide. With every suggestion of experienced 
friends, there would arise some association of 
fatigue in sight-seeing, of monotony in rest- 
ing long in one place. Pleasant as it would 
be to nestle in some quiet nook in Switzer- 
land, or take up an abode in one of the Chan- 
nel Islands, — Alderney, for example, where 
there would be much to gratify curiosity, and 
where the distance from the centres of infor- 
mation would not be great, — the thought of 
being confined to one place, or even district 
of country, or of being tempted to visit inter- 
esting scenes, and especially to make the ac- 
quaintance of interesting men, awakened 



OUTWARD BOUND. 11 

such anticipations of labor as to forbid any 
hope of restoration from that source. 

A son of the writer was compelled in youth 
by ill-health to leave his studies, and go to 
sea. In the fall of 1869 he received com- 
mand of a commodious ship, the " Golden 
Fleece," which sailed in October of that year 
for San Francisco, Hong Kong, and Manila. 
By the kindness of Messrs. William F. Weld 
& Co., the writer and two members of his 
family accompanied him as passengers. 

Many were the questions to which these 
passengers required answers previous to their 
embarkation on so long a voyage. The gale 
of September, 1869, which levelled our Boston 
Coliseum, and damaged so many steeples, 
and made such havoc among poplars, and 
other trees whose roots run near the surface, 
led to the inquiry, What were the ordinary 
chances of such gales at sea ? This question 
was answered by producing the log-book of 
a recent voyage from Mexico, in which it ap- 
peared that the weather, day after day, was so 



12 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

free from any cause for fear, that the impres- 
sion was allowed to gain strength that storms 
w^ere an exception in sea-faring life. As to 
the gale just mentioned, it seemed safer to be 
at sea at such a time, with sea-room, than 
under roofs and chimneys, or in streets. 

In two days after leaving New York we 
were in the Gulf Stream. We sailed through 
leagues of herbage which was borne from the 
shores by the Stream, and, like us, was going 
to sea. The ship rolled ; and soon the wind 
freshened, and we were in a gale. We had 
our first sight of ^^ mountain waves," so called ; 
but they needed some imagination and a lit- 
tle fear to make them mountainous. They 
were enough, however, to make us uncom- 
fortable. The gale lasted two days. We 
took the impression that such was to be the 
ordinary experience in the voyage, — discom- 
fort and tediousness. But we were happy to 
find that it was not so ; for, during the whole 
voyage, there were very few such experiences, 
— so infrequent, indeed, as to excite surprise 



OUTWARD BOUND. 13 

when they came. The morning after the 
gale the weather was fine. Going on deck, 
we found we had exchanged the sharp air of 
the latter part of October in New England 
for the temperature of the early part of 
June. 

Soon we were in the Tropic of Cancer. It 
seemed like a new world. Never before had 
we looked upon such a sky. There was no 
stratification in the clouds, and nothing of 
the cumulus formation ; but the surface of 
the sky was composed of innumerable fleecy 
things moving in the gentlest manner, as 
though they feared to disturb slumber. The 
gentle motion was just the thing to induce 
sleep. As we thought of the turbulent state 
of the elements the day before, the sky now 
looked like an army which had been dis- 
missed. It seemed as though there was not 
wind enough to form a large cloud. The 
hammock was made fast, one end of it to an 
iron belaying-pin in the saddle of the mizzen- 
mast, in the shade of the spanker, and the 



14 AROUND THE WORLD. 

other end to the rail. A haramock meets 
you at every point with the needed support. 
It brought strange sensations of rest to lie 
and listen to the plashing of the water against 
the sides of the ship. The measured roll of 
the vessel now was pleasurable. There was 
an easy swing to the hammock, as though a 
considerate hand were keeping it moving. 
How much better this rest and peace than 
travelling in Switzerland, or being pent up in 
the Azores, or wandering through Italy, if 
one needs rest and at the same time change 
of place ! To an overworked brain here is 
seclusion indeed. There is here no post- 
office, with its delivery five times a day, so 
welcome on shore ; no newspapers ; no door- 
bell; no agents soliciting attention to new 
works, and begging you to put your name 
down and accept a copy, as though you had 
subscribed ; no succession of engagements ; 

" No cares to break the long repose ; ** 

no crowd of passengers, nor daily calculation 



OUTWARD BOUND. 15 

as to the day of arrival; nor jar of machinery, 
as in a steamboat, making you feel, day and 
night, that somebody is laboriously at work ; 
and, to crown all, seemingly no end to your 
vacation. 

But those clouds in the tropics ! You had 
thought, perhaps, heretofore, that only at 
night the heavens declare the glory of God. 
Perhaps you find that the book which you 
brought on deck to read, but which you have 
no desire to open, may have in it a fly-leaf, 
on which, as you lie in the hammock, with 
one knee raised for a writing-table, you may 
indite these dreamy lines : — 

THE CLOUDS IN THE TROPICS. 

Did we not think o'er ocean's restless plain 

To see embattled hosts, and feel the affray ? 

But lo I a truce is here, and gala-day ; 

Nor lines of march, nor rank and file remain. 

The fleecy clouds move o'er the tranquil plain, 

And fling their trade-wind signals to the breeze, 

To Capricorn from Cancer, realm of peace 1 

They seek no martial order to regain. 

But take some fancied likeness, one by one, 



16 AROUND THE WORLD. 

Or shape themselves in wizard groups of things; 
No haste, nor deep designs, no jostling crowds. 
The hosts are going home, their service done. 
What sense of power the wide-spread quiet brings ! 
In cahns or storms " His strength is in the clouds." 

The meteorology in the latter part of the 
Book of Job stood in no need of modern 
science to captivate the hearts of the wor- 
shippers of the true God. " Dost thou know 
the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous 
works of Him which is perfect in knowl- 
edge ? " 

The charm of sea-life in a sailing-vessel I 
found to be constant occupation of the mind 
without wearying it. At first it seemed a 
duty to read the periodicals which we 
brought with us, the new books reserved for 
the voyage, the choice articles in the quarter- 
lies which had been commended to us. But 
for these we found no time. What charm 
could there be in Dante when a school of 
porpoises was in sight, each of them leap- 
ing out of water just for the pleasure of the 



OUTWARD BOUND. 17 

dive back ? If the mate called down the 
companion-way, " A sail on the lee-bow ! " the 
paper-folder must keep the place in the nn- 
cut volume till yon know all about her. It 
would be tedious waiting at a corner of a 
street ten minutes for a horse-car; but it was 
pleasant to wait an hour and forty minutes 
to come up with the stranger ahead, gaining 
upon her all the time, meanwhile watching 
the flying-fish which the ship started on the 
wing, or going forward into the bows and 
looking over to see the ship dash through 
the waves, with " a bone in her mouth,'' till 
suddenly the main topgallant-sail splits, and 
so fulfils the expectation expressed for the 
last five days that it could not long survive ; 
and now, as it is the change of watch, and 
all hands are on deck, what could be more 
interesting than to see twenty-eight of them 
take in the old sail and bend the new one, 
then line the side of the ship with their cu- 
rious faces to inspect the bark which we 
have now overtaken. She is the "Doon of 



18 AROUND THE WORLD. 

Ayr/' one hundred and six days from Japan 
for New York, and, as she was tacking, we 
came so near that one might throw a biscuit 
on board. The captains of the bark and the 
ship had time for a few words of inquiry and 
information ; then the two wanderers on 
the deep parted company, and watched each 
other for half an hour, and sighted each 
other, no doubt, occasionally, for an hour and 
a half, till each became to the other a speck. 
You have long ago forgotten your book, your 
journal, and magazine. This event and its 
many interludes are more interesting to you 
than a battle in Lord Derby's Homer ; it is 
practical life ; you begin to feel that every 
thing which you enjoy will be without the 
intrusion of periodical engagements, and you 
feel surprised that no such engagements now 
demand your thoughts. 

Among the incidents at sea which give a 
charm to life, one is Speaking a vessel. This 
is a metaphorical expression, retained from 
the former days before signals were used in 



OUTWABD BOUND. 19 

conversation, and when vessels had to come 
near enough to each other for the speaking 
to act its part. We had been out five or six 
days, when a sail was descried on the star- 
board bow. It proved to be a bark ; and we 
were as glad to see her as though we had 
met an old friend in a foreign land. The 
bark soon hoisted her ensign, which was the 
same as raising your hat in passing. We 
hoisted ours, which was a signal of recogni- 
tion. The bark ran up four flags, which we 
recognized by the spyglass as 6 9 5 7, show- 
ing her number in the book to be 6957. 
Turning to it, we read " Sachem." We ran up 
4 5 9 1, our number in the book. The 
bark displayed 5 6 2 8, which we found to be 
"Salem." We showed 4 7 8 2,— "New York." 
The bark gave 6 8 7 4, — " Zanzibar," We 
returned 2 18 0, — "California." The bark 
showed 6, — "six days out." We did the 
same. The bark showed numeral pendant 54, 
meaning "longitude," and with it 54° 38'. 
We replied with 54° 30', — our calculation. 



20 AROUND THE WORLD. 

The ba-rk then dipped her ensign, hauling it 
down half-way, then raising it again. This 
was done three times. We did the same, 
which was equivalent to '^ good-bye " oti 
either side, and lifting the hat; we added 
6 3 8 9, meaning, " Wish you a pleasant voy- 
age." The answer was, 5 7 8 3," Many 
thanks." 

These courtesies at sea are pleasant. 
Coming up with the vessel, or she and you 
drawing near in passing, reading the numbers 
by the spyglass, and arranging all the signals, 
is an agreeable occupation for the larger part 
of two hours, including the departure of the 
vessels from each other, as though friends 
were parting, leaving the ocean more a soli- 
tude than before. 

Meeting vessels, or passing them at a dis- 
tance, exchanging signals, making out their 
numbers, bring remote parts of the earth 
suddenly to mind. Thus new trains of 
thought succeed each other entirely discon- 
nected. I always enjoyed exercise on horse- 



OUTWARD BOUND. 21 

back for one principal reason, — that on horse- 
back you cannot long pursue one train of 
thought. Your conjunctions are disjunctive. 
If you purpose to make out your evening 
lecture on horseback, your attention is so 
frequently taken by something in the road, or 
by the action of the horse, that you probably 
come home without any connected plan. So 
at sea. The occasional sight of a sail is an 
illustration of the charm of sea-life as having 
complete possession of your thoughts without 
leaving you long at liberty to pore over a 
subject. If you meet a Norwegian bark, 
and the captain tells you he is twenty-four 
days from Buenos Ay res, there is Norway and 
Buenos Ayres for your meditation, and per- 
haps for your statistical or geographical in- 
quiry. If the " Queen of the Pacific," eighty- 
seven days from Macao for London, comes in 
sight, there is another chapter in the world's 
great miscellany. That sail yonder proves 
to be the " Hungarian," of Saguenay, twen- 
ty-one days out, bound to Melbourne, with 



22 AROUND THE WORLD. 

lumber. You have another illustration of 
. commerce binding together the ends of the 
earth. You soon excuse those friends of 
yours at home who commiserated you on the 
prospect of a long, monotonous sea- voyage. 
Where is the monotony ? Not in the ship's 
clock, which enumerates every hour and half 
hour by a system of horology altogether 
different from shore time-pieces ; not in the 
boatswain's " Pumpship " at evening, when 
twelve or fifteen men entertain you with a 
song. Every tune at the pumps must have a 
chorus. The sentiment in the song is the 
least important feature of it, — the celebration 
of some portion of the earth or seas, other 
than here and now : " I wish I was in Mobile 
Bay, " " I'm bound for the Rio Grande," with 
the astounding chorus from twenty-eight 
men, part of whom the fine moonlight and 
the song tempt fi-om their bunks, is an anti- 
dote to monotony. 

The sailors were a merry set. Though only 
half of the crew — that is, one watch — were 



OUTWARD BOUND. 23 

required each night at the pumps, all hands 
at first generally turned out because it was 
the time for a song. It was a nightly pleas- 
ure to be on the upper deck when the pumps 
were manned, and to hear twenty men sing. 
When making sail after a gale, the crew are 
ready for the loudest singing, unless it be 
at the pumps. For example, when hauling 
on the topsail halyards, they may have this 
song, the shanty man, as they call him, solo 
singer, beginning with a wailing strain : 

Solo : O poor Reuben Ranzo ! (twice.) 

Chorus : Ranzo, boys, Ranzo ! 
Solo : Ranzo was no sailor ! " 

Chorus : Ranzo, boys, Ranzo ! 
Solo : He shipped on board a whaler ! " 

Chorus : Ranzo, boys, Ranzo ! 
Solo : The captain was a bad man ! " 

Chorus : Ranzo, boys, Ranzo ! 
Solo : He put him in the rigging ! " 

Chorus : Ranzo, boys, Ranzo ! 
Solo : He gave him six-and-thirty — " 

by which time the topsail is mast-headed, and 
the mate cries, " Belay ! " 



24 AROUND THE WORLD. 

Wlien the mainsail is to be set, and they 
are hauling down the main tack, this, per- 
haps, is the song : — 

Solo : " 'Way ! haul away ! my ro-sey ; 
Chorus : 'Way ! haul away ! haul away ! Joe ! " 

the long pull, the strong pull, the pull alto- 
gether being given at the word " Joe ; " then 
no more pulling till the same word recurs. 

When hauling on the main sheet, this is 
often the song, sung responsively : — 

Shanty man : " Haul the bowline ; -Kitty is my darling. 
Crew : Haul the bowline, the bowline haul ! " 

That no one may think of me above that 
which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth 
of me, let me say that I find, on inquiry, that 
the " main tack " is the line which hauls down 
that corner of the main sail which is toward 
the wind; called, therefore, the "weather 
clew." The "main sheef hauls the other cor- 
ner of the main sail ; called, therefore, " the 
lee clew." Why a rope should be called a 



OUTWARD BOUND. 25 

sheet is a piece of nautical metonymy which it 
would be difficult to explain. " Larboard "' 
and " starboard " were formerly used to desig- 
nate respectively the left and the right side 
of the ship, standing aft and looking forward ; 
but the two words, so much alike, were not 
always readily apprehended, and so were 
changed to " port and starboard." Why the 
word " port " is used, does not appear ; nor 
can any one tell why " Reuben Ranzo " is as- 
sociated with one of the long pulls ; if there 
be any philosophy in it, or historic associa- 
tion, it is as deep as the sea, or hopelessly 
lost. 

After singing at the pumps, in good 
weather, when there was not much work, the 
men would have some amusement. Some- 
times it was " Hunt the Slipper." Then, 
again, two men sat down opposite each other, 
their hands and feet tied, and a capstan bar 
was run through each of the two men's arms, 
behind him. The two would push each other 
with their feet till one would lose his balance, 



26 AROUND THE WORLD. 

and fall over ; then, being helpless, he was at 
the mercy of his comrade's feet till he begged 
for quarter. These games were interspersed 
with declamations. We had some of Macau- 
lay's "Lays of Ancient Rome," "Spartacus," 
"My name is Norval." The merry laugh 
and the clapping of hands at the declaimers, 
and, now and then, the youthful voice of a boy 
reciting his piece from Henry Clay, or a story 
from the " Reader," beguiled many an even- 
ing in the tropics. 

On crossing the line, one evening when we 
were on the upper deck, we were startled by 
a voice on the lower deck, " What ship's 
that ? " The captain replied. The voice an- 
swered, " I shall call upon you to-morrow ; I 
have an engagement this evening." At 2, 
P.M., the next day, being Saturday, we were 
summoned on deck by one of the sailors, who 
announced that Neptune was coming on 
board. All at once we saw a grotesque fig- 
ure swinging in the air over the water, half- 
way up to the main topgallant, — the sailors 



OUTWARD BOUND. 27 

pulling him in. He came on board, wet from 
his waist ; and there came also over the sides 
a female figure and a young man. They 
came to the front cabin door, and saluted the 
captain, who stood ready to receive them. 
Neptune had on spectacles made of a tin can, 
epaulets of the same, buskins made of duck, 
long hair of rope-yarns, a duck tunic, and a 
girdle of twisted ropes. Mrs. Neptune had 
on a long duck mantle, her face blackened 
with burnt cork, and a large fan made of 
wood, and covered with sail-cloth ; she used 
it gracefully. The son bore his father's tri- 
dent, which was a four-pronged iron, called 
" the grains," used for spearing sharks. He, 
also, was fantastically dressed. They made 
obeisance to the captain, who welcomed 
them on board in a short speech. They 
then repaired to a booth fitted up as a 
sort of marquee, flung up the sides, and 
called a young man from the crew. They 
asked him if he ever crossed the line before ; 
then set him in a barrel, with his feet out, in- 



28 AROUND THE WORLD. 

quired his name, where from and whither 
bound ; and, as he opened his mouth to an- 
swer, inserted the paint-brush, filled with 
soap and lime, with which the son was lather- 
ing him, who then produced an old saw, 
fixed in a piece of wood for a sheath and han- 
dle, and shaved him. Neptune then ordered 
him to be washed ; when four men took him 
and dipped him into a barrel of water. This 
they did to three young men. They then 
came up to our deck and saluted us. The 
captain informed them that we were all liege 
subjects of Neptune, and needed not to be 
sworn. They then wished us a pleasant 
voyage, — Mrs. N. taking her husband's arm, 
fanning herself gracefully, — and they with- 
drew. While it was a successful masquerade, 
well sustained in all the parts, — the boys 
consenting to be hazed, conscious that they 
were contributing something to the dramatic 
poetry of sea-life, — it was easy to see that it 
was capable of abuse. The officers saw that 
they should be careful how they allowed this 



OUTWARD BOUND. 29 

liberty. To an invalid at sea these things 
are medicine ; and, as I am writing in the in- 
terest of some who may betake themselves 
for the first time to sea in a sailing-ship for 
health, I would say that they must wait till 
they are in circumstances to find how ^^ dulce 
est desipere in loco/' — how pleasant it is at 
sea to be even gamesome upon occasions. 

One day, as I lay in the hammock, I found 
myself in a revery ; my eye being fixed on a 
bright, new rope which appeared among the 
running rigging. I mention it as an illustra- 
tion of the frames of mind which steal upon 
an invalid passenger, especially in a sailing- 
ship, because undisturbed there by a crowd, 
or by the noise of steam and its machinery. 
Would any one think that a single halyard 
among five or six others could bring to mind 
Burke's treatise on the " Sublime and Beau- 
tiful " ? But it was even so. I found my eye 
going up the new rope in admiration at the 
perfect regularity in the twist of the strands. 
An artist cannot always combine the hempen 

2* 



30 AROUND THE WORLD. 

yarns with the exactness which the rope- 
maker's wheel gives them. My eye went 
from the new rope to the old ones ; all had 
the same perfect twist throughout the ship. 
The ropes, from belaying-pin to truck, the sig- 
nal halyard and the hawser, seemed instinct 
with " the beauty of fitness," to borrow a 
term from the above-mentioned writer, — a 
common window-sash, with its parallelograms 
of panes, serving that great genius for an 
illustration. 

" Thus pleasure is spread through the earth 

In stray gifts, to be claimed by whoever shall find. 
Thus a rich loving-kindness, redundantly kind, 
Moves all nature to gladness and mirth." * 

I cannot forget the simple pleasure which 
this meditation on a rope gave me, carrying 
me back to youthful days in my native place, 
and to the rope walks there, the swift spin- 
dles, the horse in the cellar turning the wheel, 
the spinners, each with a bunch of hemp 
around him hitching it to the spindle, then 

♦Wordsworth. Poems of the Fancy, Stray Pleasures. 



OUTWARD BOUND. 31 

walking backwards, paying out the hemp 
through his hands with judicious care, the 
rope all the time growing lengthwise, down 
the walk. It used to be a wonder to me how 
the horse in the cellar, going about on the 
tan, could twist the twine at the end of the 
bridge as accurately as it was twisted at the 
spindle. Unconscious influence, remote caus- 
ation, continents, oceans, years, intervening 
between the agent and the effect of his ex- 
ample and words, were illustrated by the horse 
in the ropewalk ; and the revery would have 
been protracted, had not a vessel ahead 
caught my eye. Coming to my senses, I 
thought of Dean Swift's satire on Robert 
Boyle's pious and sentimental writings, which 
the Dean had to read in the hearing of Lady 
Berkeley, whose simplicity and enthusiasm 
he was pleased to ridicule, in revenge for the 
task imposed on him, under the guise of 
mimicking Mr. Boyle, in the famous verses, 
^* Meditations on a Broomstick." 

But few things have so pleasing an effect 



32 AROUND THE WORLD. 

in solving the kinks in one's brain as to lie 
in a hammock on deck at sea, far away from 
care, and let the fancy, like the poet's river, 
"wander at its own sweet will." This wan- 
dering would have continued, had I not been 
startled by descrying as aforesaid a vessel 
ahead, hove to, directly across our course, 
under short sail, her jib-boom gone, all looking 
as if she was in distress and trying to inter- 
cept us for relief. We began to consider how 
many we could accommodate in case she 
proved to be in a sinking condition ; how our 
provisions would hold out ; and other pru- 
dential questionings ; which were soon dissi- 
pated by finding that she was a whaler with a 
whale alongside, a man standing on him cut- 
ting in, and the rest of the crew, some of 
them, hoisting up the pieces, and others try- 
ing them out. This episode in practical life 
contrasted well with the revery with which 
the forenoon begun, making with it a good 
illustration of the variety in sea-life. 

It had rained in torrents one night, and it 



OUTWARD BOUND. 33 

kept on till nine o'clock the next day. The 
sailors stopped the lee scuppers, and soon the 
deck had eighteen inches of water on the lee 
side. The ducks were released, and thought 
their paradise regained. The sailors could 
not resist the opportunity to do a little wash- 
ing; so flannel shirts and other articles of 
apparel came forth into the common tub, the 
lower deck ; being trampled on by bare feet 
instead of the more laborious process of the 
washing-board. The sturdy limbs, bared up 
to the knees showed fine sets of muscles, 
enough to excite the admiration of an artist 
pursuing anatomical studies. After the sail- 
ors had finished, they turned their attention 
to the pigs, which were severally walked into 
the water on two legs by the men, when 
they were chased and knocked about and 
scrubbed, till, by their looks, they made yoa 
believe the saying of the market-men, that 
ship-fed pork has no superior. There was 
no monotony here. 

But there was monotony soon in the dol- 



34 AROUND THE WORLD. 

drums. These are a region near the equator, 
between the north-east and south-east trades, 
where calms and rains abound, puffs of wind 
varying in direction every half-hour, trying 
to the sailors, disappointing the captain's 
hopes. He yearns for steam ; even an old 
captain will resolve, for the hundredth time 
in his life, that he will never go to sea again ; 
he jumps on his hat, and whistles for the wind. 
Then a breeze springs up, and he rubs his 
hands, and thinks that, after all, his ship is 
better than a steamer, till, in half an hour, 
she is almost motionless. 

Then is the time for the sharks to appear. 
They are slow creatures, and cannot keep up 
with a good sailer; so in calms they come 
and lie alongside. The little pilot-fishes, the 
curious attendants of the shark, directing 
his attention to food, are with him. The 
grains are thrust at the shark ; and, if they 
fasten in him, a bend of a rope around his 
tail brings him on board. Sailors have 
great spite against sharks ; they may show 



OUTWARD BOUND. 35 

tenderness to other creatures, but for sharks 
they have no mercy. They will use their 
sheath-knives about his nose, and disfigure 
him in all conceivable ways. Their theory 
is that a shark never dies till sunset. Sharks 
are hard to kill. You may cut off their 
heads and tails, and disembowel them, and 
even then the trunk will thrash the deck at 
so lively a rate that his executioners will 
have need to jump about for safety. In 
contrast with the shark, the dolphin seemed 
to me for beauty to verify all that poets have 
said of him. It is my belief that a dolphin's 
mouth is as perfect a curve as nature ever 
produces. His tints, when dying, are no fic- 
tion. Two sword-fish were caught one day, 
and the rapidity with which they were 
stripped of their flesh, and their back-bones 
hung up to dry, rivalled the skill and speed 
of young surgical practitioners. 

We kept Thanksgiving, it having been 
appointed before we sailed, so that we knew 
the day. We dined at four, instead of our 



36 AROUND THE WORLD. 

usual hour (half past twelve), and so we were 
at table part of the time with those at home. 
Our dinner was : — 1. Oyster soup ; 2. Boiled 
salmon and scalloped oysters ; 3. Roast fowl ; 
4. Huckleberry pudding ; 5. Apple-pies of 
dried apple. Now, should any one envy us, 
or should his mouth water at such a bill of 
fare, let him know that oysters and salmon 
from tin cans are not the same as those fresh 
from Faneuil-Hall Market. 

Before we approach and pass Cape Horn, it 
would be interesting, at least to the writer, 
if he should indulge in further minute de- 
scriptions of many other things in sea-life ; 
but, interesting as these things may be to the 
writer, the reader may be supposed to know 
some things ; and, intrepid as he may think 
himself, he must remember that there were 
brave men before Agamemnon. 



n. 

CAPE HORN. 

All places that the eye of Heaven visits 
Are to a wise man ports and happy havens. 
Teach thy necessity to reason thus : 
There is no virtue like necessity. 

Shakspeare : Richard II. 

T six o'clock^ A.M., Dec. 20, a man at 
the mast-head cried, " Land, ho ! " 
^ We saw the highlands of Tierra del 
Fuego, about a hundred miles from Cape 
Horn. We lay on the water motionless. About 
a mile from us was a brig apparently bound 
the same way. The captain ordered a boat 
to be made ready ; and the mate, one of the 
boatswains^ and three sailors, rowed to her. 
She proved to be the brig "Hazard," Capt. 
Lewis, of Boston, belonging to Messrs. Baker 
and Morrill, eighty days from Malaga, bound 

87 




38 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

to San Francisco, with raisins and lemons. 
The visitors received much information, and 
gave papers, — which, though fifty-seven days 
old, were gladly received, — some buckwheat, 
and other things, and received kind tokens 
in return. The swell would often hide the 
boat from the ship, and the ship from the 
boat, except the upper sails. In the after- 
noon the wind sprung up fair ; soon we came 
close to, and the captains had conversation. 

Tierra del Fuego lies south of Patagonia, 
separated by the Straits of Magellan. It has 
high hills, which, at a distance, look like 
domes. Many bays indent the coast, causing 
it to bend frequently. Between this dis- 
trict of country and Staten Land or Island, 
are the Straits of Le Maire, twelve miles 
broad. Entering the Straits with a fair wind 
and a strong current, on the morning of a 
bright, cool day, Dec. 21, we went at the rate 
of thirteen knots. We came alongside of a 
great patch of seaweed and kelp, on which 
were eleven large birds. We had tacked or 



CAPE HORN'. 39 

had been becalmed for almost a week, losing 
nearly five days. We therefore enjoyed our 
speed the more. The hills were picturesque 
in the variety of their shapes ; their jagged- 
ness and grouping were beyond imagination. 
One cluster was surmounted by an enormous 
stone, fluted like a sea-shell, looking as if it 
were placed there for a memorial purpose. 

There was another hill which terminated 
in the appearance of a man's head, the face 
upward, the features regular, and so much 
resembling one of the sailors that it received 
his name. Flocks of wild ducks, twenty or 
thirty in each, albatrosses, cape hens, cape 
pigeons, penguins or divers, were abundant. 
These penguins float with only the head 
above water, and dive often ; they all made 
the scene most lively. We sat or stood three 
or four hours enjoying the wild enchantment. 
It was worth to any one a voyage from New 
York. We saw no trace of an inhabitant. 
They are said to be of large stature, almost 
naked, their skin and flesh toughened by the 



40 AROUXD THE WORLD. 

climate. They do no tillage, but live on 
sbell-fish and game. I shall always remem- 
ber this region for its wild beauty and seem 
ingly intense barrenness. 

We came up with a New-Bedford whaler ; 
the name "Selah" was on her quarter, whale- 
boats over her side, and men at the mast- 
head, looking for whales or seals. We also 
descried a large ship ahead of us which we 
overtook. She proved to be the " Cambrian," 
Liverpool, seventy days out. We enjoyed 
the sight of her, an iron vessel, with wire 
rigging, neat and handsome. 

At length we saw Cape Horn Island, the 
object of our desire, and at 7, p.m., were 
abreast of it. Some high rocks stood about 
like sentinels. We were within a mile of 
the Cape. 

Cape Horn Island is the southernmost ex- 
tremity of Tierra del Fuego, in south latitude 
55*^ 58'. It is the southern termination of a 
group of rocky islands surmounted with a 
dome-like hill, out of w^hich is a projection like 



CAPE HOUN, 41 

a straight horn. But Schouten, the Dutch 
discoverer, is said to have named Cape Horn 
from Hoorn, in the Netherlands, his native 
place. The whole hill is a bare rock ; indeed, 
how could any thing, even the lowest forms 
of vegetable life, find root on a place smitten 
as this is by the waves ? Only the lichens, 
stealing with seeming compassion over every 
form in nature doomed to barrenness, succeed 
in holding on to these rocks. The hill is 
about eight hundred feet high, its base envi- 
roned by low, black rocks, with not a sign 
even of marine vegetation. One line of these 
rocks looks like a fort, the seeming gateway, 
higher than the rest of the wall, being com- 
posed of perpendicular fragments. All along 
the base of the rough hill, low, irregular piles, 
like a growth of thorns and brambles around 
a bowlder in a field, constitute a fringe, as 
though Nature felt that the place needed 
some appropriate decoration ; and what could 
be more so than that which she has here 
given ? For a long space toward the termi- 



42 AROUND THE WORLD. 

nation of the Cape, sharp rocks stand up in 
groups, and some apart, making a gradual 
ending of the scene, all in agreement with 
the wildness which marks the region. 

The sight of this spot, one landmark of our 
continent, can never fade from the memory 
of the beholder. Like many a remarkable 
object, it is of moderate si2ie', its impressive- 
ness being due, not to its bulk or height, 
but to its position. At first you are disap- 
pointed in not seeing at such a place some- 
thing colossal ; you would have it mountain- 
ous ; at least, you would have thought that 
it would be columnar. Nothing of this ; you 
have the disappointment which you feel on 
seeing for the first time a distinguished man, 
whom you find to be of low stature, whereas 
you would have had him of imposing appear- 
ance. But soon, however, you feel that you 
are at one of the ends of the earth. Here 
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans begin, the 
great deep dividing itself into those two prin- 
cipal features of our globe. Any thing mon- 



CAPE HORN. 43 

umental, any thing statuesque, or even pic- 
turesque, here, you feel would be trifling. 
Like silence, more expressive at times than 
speech, the total absence of all display here 
is sublimity itself; you would not have it 
otherwise than an infinite solitude, unpreten- 
tious, without form, almost chaotic. Around 
this point it is as though there were a con- 
test to which ocean each billow shall divide : 
here the winds and waters make incessant 
war ; the sea always roars and the fulness 
thereof. The rocks which finally terminate 
the Cape stand apart, as you sometimes see 
corners of blocks of buildings where an ex- 
tensive fire has raged, and the most of the 
walls have fallen in -, but here and there a 
shoulder of a wall overhangs the ruins. 

We stood together as we passed the last 
landmarks, and sang, 

" Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.** 

It had been a day, from beginning to end, of 
constant pleasure, from the moment that we 



44 AROUND THE WORLD. 

entered the Straits of Le Maire. We had ac- 
complished one great design in our voyage. 
Would that the pleasant theory that musical 
sounds leave their vibrations in the air might 
have reality given to it, and praise to God 
break forth from all of every language who 
navigate the Cape ! 

We had reason to feel that we were not a 
great way from circumpolar regions; for at 
a quarter before eleven, the night previous, 
there were lingering streaks of pink light in 
the west. We never before read out of doors 
so late in the evening as we did that 21st of 
December on deck. 

We had been steering south, going five de- 
grees below the Cape ; now we needed to turn 
and go northward ; but the fierce winds made 
no account of our plan. You may be several 
weeks trying in vain, as a ship belonging to 
our firm was, to double the Cape ; but, by fa- 
voring winds, we were six days. Once only 
during this time had we a full view of the 
Horn ; our captain had been here six times, 



CAPE HORm 45 

and now, for the second time only, saw the 
Cape. Nothing lay between us and the An- 
tarctic Circle and the South Pole. The waves 
were Cape-Horn swells, peculiar to that re- 
gion. The sight of the ocean there was wild 
beyond description. Now and then the sun 
would come out, but his smile seemed sarcas- 
tic. Going on deck to view the tempest, you 
are made to feel, as the ship goes down into 
deep places, that you would be more sur- 
prised at her coming up than if she should 
disappear. It is a good time and place for 
faith. One of the Latin fathers said, " Qui 
discat orare, discat navigare ; " Let him who 
would learn to pray go to sea. It is to be 
doubted whether there are many places on 
the globe where one feels the power of soli- 
tude precisely as here. In the depths of a 
wilderness, or among mountains, solitude is 
more like death ; but here it seems to have 
consciousness ; you are spell-bound by some 
awful power; there is an infinitude about 
these watery realms ; it seems like being in 



46 AROUND THE WORLD. 

eternity. In the ascent of Mont Blanc, while 
gazing from the Mer de Glace on those 
needles of granite, inaccessible except to the 
eagle, I once felt that nothing could exceed 
the sense of desolateness there inspired ; but 
to be at the end of a continent, with two 
oceans separating and forming a wild race- 
way where they go asunder, all the winds and 
storms beino; summoned to witness the inauo;- 
uration of two oceans, their frantic uproar 
seemingly designed for the great occasion, 
Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego with their stu- 
pendous solitudes listening to the clamor ; and 
then the feeling that the next place recorded 
oh the map is the Antarctic Circle, with its 
barriers of cold and ice, you are warranted in 
the conviction that you are as near the 
confines of unearthly dimensions as you can 
be on this planet. You think of home, and 
the thought of your separation from friends 
and country and your consignment to these 
awful wilds, gives you a feeling of littleness, 
of nothingness, seldom if ever experienced 



CAPE TIORN. 47 

elsewhere. And here is the proud ship that 
stretched her length in the pier at New York 
so far as to hold her spar over the passing 
drays and reach almost to the opposite ware- 
rooms, now less than an egg-shell in these 
waters, — a tiny nautilus, a bubble, whose 
destruction any moment, unseen by any 
human eye, could not detain any of these 
proud waters to be so much as a mound over 
her grave. 

One day, before we entered the Straits and 
reached Cape Horn, along the neighborhood 
of Patagonia, the sea was more than usually 
disturbed, a ground-swell succeeding a gale 
lifting the waves higher than we had seen 
them, so that the motion of the ship had no 
uniformity for any two consecutive moments 
during the larger part of the day, — a cold, 
cheerless day, the sun now and then shining 
faintly, the wind ahead, no chance for a nau- 
tical observation, every thing to the last degree 
forlorn. A bird came, in all this turmoil, and 
lighted in the water near the ship, and swam 



48 AROUND THE WORLD. 

about us. The sight suggested the following 
lines : — 

THE CAPE-HORN ALBATROSS. 

The ship lay tossing on tlie stormy ocean, 
A head wind challenging her right of way ; 

Sail after sail she furled ; in exultation 
The waves accounted her their yielding prey. 

On her lee beam the Patagonia coast line 

Keeps ambushed reefs to snare the drifting keel ; 

We fancied breakers in the dying sunshine, 

And questioned what the daybreak would reveal. 

No cities, towns, nor quiet rural village 
Gladden the heart along this lonely way ; 

But cannibals may lurk with death and pillage 
For all whom winds and currents force astray. 

The Falkland Isles, Tierra del Fuego, 

Straits of Le Maire, the near Antarctic Zone, 

The stormy Horn, whose rocks the tempest echo. 
Can faith and courage there maintain their throne ? 

Watching the swell from out the cabin windows, 
The towering waves piled high and steep appear ; 

But what is riding on those mighty billows ? 
An albatross. The sight allays my fear. 



CAPE noRN. 49 

Her snoTV-white breast she settles on the water, 
Her dark wings fluttering while she trims her foraa, 

Then calmly rides ; nor can the great waves daunt her, 
Nor will she heed the menace of the storm. 

She spreads her wings, flies low across the vessel, 
She scans the wake, then sails around the' bows, 

Not moving either pinion ; much I marvel 
How like one flying in a dream she goes. 

She craves the presence of no other sea-bird ; 

She revels in the power to go at will ; 
The ocean, solitudes, the wandering seaward, 

The distant sail, her daring spirit thrill. 

Behold, this fowl hath neither barn nor storehouse ; 

An unseen Hand assists her search for food ; 
Storms bring her up deep things of ocean's produce. 

Prized the more highly in the storm pursued. 

With joy each day I'll take the wings of morning, 
Dwell in the utmost parts of this lone sea ; 

E'en there thy hand shall lead me, still adoring. 
And thy right hand shall hold who trust in thee. 
5 



m. 



CALIFORNIA, THE SANDWICH ISLANDS, 
HONG KONG. 

Long have they voyaged o'er the distant seas; 

And what a heart-delight they feel at last, 

So many toils, so many dangers past, 

To view the port desired, he only knows 

Who on the stormy deep for many a day 

Hath tossed, a weary of his ocean way, 

And watched, all anxious, every wind that blows. 



SOUTHEY. 




NE day, at sundown, the captain said, 
as he looked at his watch, " At five 
minutes past nine this evening we 
shall see Faralone Light." We had tacked 
several times that day ; the current was strong, 
the wind had come round aft, so that only 
one course of sails drew ; therefore, we paid 
little attention to the remark, supposing it to 
be a guess, or at least a hope, rather than a 
judgment. 



50 



CALIFORNIA, SANDWICH ISLANDS, ETC. 51 

At nine o'clock, a man was sent aloft to 
see if there was a light visible. At twenty 
minutes after nine he called out, " Light, 
ho ! three points on the port bow." In 
five or ten minutes we saw it from the deck. 

We felt that this part of the voyage was 
over. We had been round Cape Horn, we 
had sailed back to 37° N., and were now also 
far west of Boston. 

It would be gratifying to indulge in full 
descriptions of San Francisco and the enjoy- 
ment derived from valued friends ; but this 
is superfluous. 

An earthquake, a few days after we were 
on shore, was the first experience I had ever 
had of that kind. Cape Horn did not shake 
after that manner. It seemed desirable to 
be at sea in order to be safe. 

The view of the Pacific from the CliflT 
House seemed to me one of the finest sea- 
views from shore which I ever enjoyed. 

I saw it stated in a San Francisco periodi- 
cal that the coast-line of California, taking 



62 AROUND THE WOULD. 

in its indentations and curves, is equal to a 
straight line drawn from San Francisco to 
Plymouth, Mass. 

One day, in driving, we came to a hill, 
which, though it was as .early as March 15, 
had begun to put forth verdure, and the hill 
was clothed with a combination of colors 
more numerous and brilliant than I ever saw 
in any part of our travels. I left this won- 
derful region with great love for it, and 
with deep impressions of the characters of 
the many new friends which I had found. 

Proceeding to the Sandwich Islands at the 
request of our agents, to receive freight there 
for China, we sailed by the whole group, for- 
ever memorable in the history of modern 
Christianity. We anchored as advised by 
the pilot, but were too near the reef to feel 
safe should we have a gale. The wind was 
very strong ; and, as we learned that there 
was no freight, we raised anchor and went 
on our way, we approving of the captain's 
judgment that any gratification we might 



CALIFORNIA, SANDWICH ISLANDS, ETC. 53 

have in viewing the scene of missionary suc- 
cess would hardly warrant the detention of 
the ship. We had kind messages from Dr. 
Judd, who offered to ask Capt. Truxton, of 
the United States vessel "Jamestown," to 
send his yawl for us if we would stay. H. 
M. Whitney, Esq., editor of " The Honolulu 
Commercial," politely sent us an invitation 
to his house during our visit, should we 
come ashore. But our captain judiciously 
decided to proceed on our voyage at once. 
We had enjoyed a fine view of the islands. 
Since leaving Tierra del Fuego, no such pic- 
ture of desolation had presented itself as the 
approaches to Honolulu with its volcanic relics. 
Rev. Hiram Bingham and S. B. Dole, Esq., 
both sons of missionaries, came off to see us, 
and gave us valuable information. They 
confirmed previous accounts of the rapid de- 
crease of the native population, who seem to 
have little vital force, but are suddenly over- 
come by sickness, and die after a very brief 
illness. The tolling of the bell day after 

5* 



54 AROUND THE WORLD. 

day is a constant dirge over the wasting 
lives of these islanders. There is a disposi- 
tion there to try a less obnoxious system of 
church ordinances, which will, no doubt, se- 
cure a hold for liturgical worship among 
many of the foreign residents and their off- 
spring ; and good feeling seems likely to 
prevail. If systems diverse from the views 
of those who have wrought such achieve- 
ments in those islands seek a shelter there, 
and the birds of the air come and lodge in 
the branches of our great tree, may they be 
well-disposed birds, remembering who plant- 
ed, who watered, while God gave the in- 
crease. 

We took a supply of the largest and 
sweetest oranges and of the best bananas I 
ever saw. The attractive style in which '' The 
Honolulu Advertiser " is arranged and print- 
ed, gave me favorable impressions of the state 
of the practical arts in Honolulu. In the fine 
moonlight night we sailed away from this 
most interesting group, for China. There is 



CALIFORNIA, SANDWICH ISLANDS, ETC. 55 

no part of the world which I have seen which 
I would sooner revisit, or where I should ex- 
pect greater enjoymentj than the Sandwich 
Islands. 

Of all the bright days which have glad- 
dened our way, none have surpassed those 
which we spent in going from the Sandwich 
Islands to China. Existence was a charm in 
that beautiful climate, that trade-wind region. 
Thirty-three days of perfect weather, one 
succeeding another with seemingly new 
beauty, made us feel that we had left this 
world of storms. If I ever need an emblem 
of perfect peace, the voyage from the Sand- 
wich Islands to China will be sure to revive in 
my memory. 

With new sensations of interest we 
reached the China Sea. The Bashee group 
of islands marks one entrance to it from the 
Pacific. We passed close to the island of 
Belintang. Here I had a first imaginary 
glimpse of the heathen world in a singular 
spectacle, which I would have said was an 



56 AROUND THE WORLD. 

illusion, had not all whom I asked to notice 
it agreed that it was a remarkable object. 

About sixty feet from the island, in the 
water, stands a high rock, in the shape of a 
flattened ellipse, wholly isolated. Its base 
looks as though it were stuccoed with large 
sea-shells, the grooved side of each facing 
you. One-half of the elevation is shapeless, 
but the other half is as good an image of a 
monstrous idol god as can be found. 

" What seemed a head, 
The likeness of a kingly crown had on," 

or, perhaps, a mitre or a fillet. The eyes are 
like the eyes of a plaster bust, made by two 
protuberances of the rock, volcanic blisters ; 
and over the whole figure seems to be thrown 
a rude drapery, which a little fancy converts 
into a robe. The whole effect is that of a 
huge idol god. There it stands at the gate- 
way of the China Sea ; and, if superstition 
had employed sculptors and architects to set 
up an image of Buddha there, no better result 




THEiBASHEEJMAgiE.— page 57 



CALIFORNIA, SANDWICH ISLANDS, ETC. 57 

could have been achieved. No hand, however, 
founded this on the seas and established it on 
the floods. There is a marine picturesque- 
ness about the rock as a whole which is very 
fine. I am thus minute in the description, 
hoping that some who read these lines will, 
on seeing the Bashee image, make a more 
full description. 

On the 13th of May we dropped anchor in 
Hong Kong Harbor. Five miles out, two 
pilots hailed us from opposite points, each in 
his rude sampan, their sails of matting and 
their oars combining to bring each first to the 
ship. The wind favored one, who came astern 
and caught a rope, which he nimbly climbed 
and came aboard. There was a woman with 
an oar sculling and steering, while her husband 
and one or two boys and girls managed the 
sails. On her back her infant was strapped, 
a boy sixteen months old, as we were in- 
formed. The little fellow had to endure all 
the motions of his mother at the oar, peeping 
over each of her shoulders by turns, and hold- 



58 AROUND THE WORLD. 

ing her neck with his hands. This, we found, 
is the common mode of life among infants 
here, children eight years old being harnessed 
to the employment of thus carrying about 
their infant brothers and sisters. 

We found ourselves at once surrounded by 
vessels of all nations. More than two hun- 
dred were in port. We lived aboard ship, 
where we were cool; were visited by gen- 
tlemen and ladies, and by masters of vessels, 
whose ships we visited in return. The Chi- 
nese tradesmen came on board almost every 
day with their wares, the deck being covered 
with their manufactures of ivory and silver. 
This is an English colony, a free port. Among 
the people in the streets are Parsees from 
Persia, who deal in the productions of their 
country, and Sepoys from Hindostan. These 
latter are police-of&cers and soldiers, black 
as charcoal, tall, straight, well-proportioned 
men. 

Hong Kong, or Sweet Waters, is an island. 
Some of its districts are Stanley, Pokfalum, 



CALIFORNIA, SANDWICH ISLANDS, ETC. 59 

Aberdeen, Victoria, of whicli the latter is the 
principal, being the seat of government. 
Victoria Peak, overlooking the harbor and 
vicinity, is about eighteen hundred feet 
high ; on it is a signal station, and the 
arrival of steamers and government vessels 
is made known by a field-piece at the 
summit. The winding ascent is extremely 
fine. This peak is ascended in sedan-chairs, 
each borne by four coolies. The ascent is 
made in one hour. The road winds continu- 
ally, presenting fine views of the coast, the 
shipping in the harbor, and ranges of moun- 
tains, and groups of islands. 

We went on shore to church, after our service 
with the sailors in the morning, and attended 
worship at Rev. Dr. Legge's chapel, known as 
" Union Church." It is a beautiful building, 
on an elevated spot, with foliage of the bam- 
boo trees around it. Over the speaker a 
punka of blue silk was kept in motion by a 
coolie out of sight, making it comfortable 
for the preacher. Good Dr. Duff protested 



60 AROUND THE WORLD. 

against punkas in the church as luxurious and 
worldly. After being in the East India cli* 
mate a while, he said, '' I must have a punka 
over me when I preach here/* I preached 
for Dr. Legge the next Sabbath morning, and 
five or six other times, and went ashore 
again in the afternoon occasionally to the 
chapel, and once heard the Eev> Mr. Turner, 
a missionary sustained by a British society, 
preach to a congregation of Chinese. I was 
struck with their devout appearance in 
prayer. All was unintelligible till the doxol- 
ogy, in Old Hundred. 

English schools for Chinese youth, main- 
tained here by the government, one of them 
with over one hundred and fifty young men, 
taught by Mr. Stuart, I had the pleasure of 
visiting, and was interested to hear the na- 
tive youths read well in English, with little 
Chinese accent. 

We enjoyed living here among the ships 
under strange flags. The officers of several 
United States vessels were polite to us, and 



CALIFORNIA, SANDWTCTI ISLANDS, ETC. 61 

afforded us much pleasure by their intelligent 
society. 

Rev. Dr. Legge, the eminent Chinese 
scholar, is engaged on his five or six large 
volumes of the Chinese classics. The Doctor 
is not impressed with the intellectual ability 
of Confucius nor of his followers. His trans- 
lations are invaluable, as saving missionaries 
and other students of the Chinese much pains 
by placing Chinese literature before them in 
a digested form. One could not help regret- 
ting that this laborious scholar cannot have 
the advantage of an international copyright 
law to afford protection to his costly fruits of 
research. American authors suffer the same 
loss, however, as he, in seeing their valuable 
works appropriated by foreigners. 

It was with a feeling of national pride that 
we saw the Pacific Mail Company's steamer 
" China," Capt. Doane, thirty days from San 
Francisco, come into the harbor promptly 
on the day she was due. She is a noble ship 
of four thousand tons. Capt. Doane came on 



62 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

board our ship, and invited us to inspect his 
vessel. It is one of the principal events of the 
month with Americans to have the Pacific 
Mail Steamer appear. All other steamers 
seem diminutive by the side of them. It 
seemed strange to find on board these vessels 
five or six live oxen and the appurtenances 
of a slaughter-house, — bestowed, however, 
out of si^ht. 

We staid in Hong Kong six months wait- 
ing for hemp to fall in Manila. While the 
ship lay at anchor we enjoyed the privilege, 
by the favor of Messrs. Augustine Heard & 
Co., of visiting several places in China and 
the East Indies. Some account of a visit to 
Canton, Shanghai, Singapore, and Macao, 
and then of the ship's departure to Manila, 
and thence to New York, will have enabled 
the reader to belt the globe. 



IV. 

CANTON, SHANGHAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. 

This is a traveller, sir; knows men and 
Manners, and has ploughed up the sea so far 
Till both the poles have knocked ; has seen the sun 
Take coach, and can distinguish the color 
Of his horses and their kinds. 

Beaumont and Fletcher's " Scornful Lady.^^ 

|HE city of Canton is only eight hours 
by steamer from Hong Kong. Ar- 
riving in the Canton River, you find 
yourself in a floating population in boats, 
close together, as though ground rents were 
as dear as in Broadway. When you enter a 
boat for a passage up the river, you marvel 
that the boat can extricate itself from the 
snarl; but you are, in a few moments, on 
your way, meeting a seemingly endless 
xhrong of people, among whom you involun- 




64 AROUND THE WORLD. 

tarily close your eyes as if in anticipation of 
a crash. We were the guests of the Rev. 
Dr. Happer of the American Presbyterian 
Mission, who, on our arrival at Hong Kong, 
had kindly invited us. We were also enter- 
tained by the other members of the Mission, 
— Messrs. Noyes, Marcellus, and McChesney. 
We visited Dr. Ker's hospital. Over a hun- 
dred Chinese were sitting in a commodious 
room listening to a native evangelist, and 
going out by tens to receive medical treat- 
ment. This hospital was formerly sustained 
by the American Board of Foreign Missions, 
with Dr. Peter Parker for surgeon and phy- 
sician. 

Being introduced to Archdeacon Gray, he 
very kindly went with ns two afternoons 
among the temples and many remarkable 
places. We saw the temple in which are 
five hundred bronzed images of gods or dei- 
fied men, each in a posture, or holding an 
emblem, representing some action or attri- 
bute. We saw the water-clock, made by 



CANTON, SHANGTIAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. 65 

tubs of water placed one above another, each 
dripping into the one below it, and the low- 
est holding a graduated stick which rose 
through a hole in the lid,, and as each hour- 
mark on the stick appears through the hole, 
a man goes up to the roof with a painted 
sign announcing to the people the time of 
day. This seems to be an heirloom from past 
ages, when the " Clepsydra " was in use, of 
which this is a specimen. Adherence to this 
useless thing is one illustration of the Chi- 
nese attachment to antiquity. As you go 
about the city, you see things which carry 
you back two thousand years, — oxen tread- 
ing clay, men sifting, wheat in sieves fastened 
on the ends of planks laid on rolling s;tones, 
and a man standing on each and keeping up 
a motion on thje. planks like ^Hilting," or 
"seesaw," — a laborious process of doing a 
simple thing. Th«n you see wo^rks of art 
surpassing modern western skill; as, for ex- 
ample, an elephant's tusk undergoing three 
years of carving; price, one hundred and 

6* 



66 AROUND THE WORLD. 

fifty dollars. Then yoa visit an eating- 
house, which Archdeacon Gray begs you to 
endure, to know that some things related of 
the Chinese are not fictions. He goes to a 
man who is eating, and, courteously taking 
up his plate, says, " What is this ? " The 
man laughs and tells him. He goes to 
another, and, taking his plate, says, " What is 
this ? " The man cheerfully replies ; but let 
it be untranslated. Around the room, on 
hooks, are evident signs that the men were 
truthful. You make swift retreat, but are 
constrained by your guide to look into an 
opium shop, where the customer, as he comes 
in, mounts a table, lies at full length, with 
his head on a wicker pillow hollowed in the 
middle to fit the neck, then is furnished with 
a pipe and lamp and box of opium, which he 
smokes till he is stupefied. Emerging from 
such scenes of degradation into the narrow 
street, ten feet wide, you may see a woman 
at a door with a child three years old, with 
whom she is playing " pease porridge hot," 



CANTON, SHANGHAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. 67 

going through the motions as we learned 
them in childhood ; and you wonder whether 
Mother Goose derived her knowledge from 
the disciples of Confucius, or whether she did 
actually live and die, as is now asserted, in 
Eowe Street, Boston. This Chinese woman 
and her child playing at " pease porridge 
hot," is one of those touches of nature which 
make ^' all the world akin." You next reach 
a place where intellectual competition throws 
some of our university intellectual feats into 
the shade. It is the Hall of Competitive 
Examination, of which there is one in each 
of the eighteen provincial cities of China. 
Though familiar by description, perhaps, to 
the reader, I venture to repeat that it is a 
large open ground, — the one in Canton meas- 
uring 689,250 square feet. On one hand, 
there are seventy -five lanes containing 4,767 
cells; on the other, sixty-eight lanes with 
3,886 cells, making a total of 8,653 cells. 
Once in three years, men of every age, from 
the youth to the aged, assemble to write 



AROUND THE WORLD. 



prize essays for a literary degree. A candi- 
date is fastened into each cell for three days 
and nights, with rice and water, planks being 
fixed in grooves in the sides of the cell serv- 
ing for a sleeping place, and for a writing- 
table by day. The strictest search is made 
to see that no book or paper is secreted in 
any dress. The essays are received by three 
officers, who seal up the outside page of each 
essay, on which is written the name, age, 
residence, ancestors, &c., of the writer. They 
are passed to another officer, who sees that 
they are copied in red ink, — the object of the 
copying being that the original handwriting 
may not be recognized by the judges. Nearly 
two thousand writers are employed in copy- 
ing. They have rooms fitted up for them in 
the " Hall of Perfect Honesty." The gov- 
ernor of the province is ex-officio chief super- 
intendent. Imperial commissioners from Pe- 
kin assist in the examinations. They meet 
in the " Hall of Auspicious Stars." This hall 
is looked upon with feelings of awe mingled 



CANTON, SHANGnAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. 69 

with hope. Success in these examinations 
is followed by fame, wealth, and honor ; and 
failure, by years of toil and possibly of re- 
peated disappointment. Messengers wait to 
carry the names of the successful candidates 
to every part of the province. The governor 
gives them a feast ; after which they go in 
state dress to worship the tablets of their an- 
cestors. Odes, as well as essays, are presented. 
The following are specimens of the themes 
at the last examination previous to 1870 : — 

" If the will be set on virtue, there will be 
no practice of wickedness." 

" It is only the individual possessed of the 
most entire sincerity that can exist under 
heaven, who can adjust the great, invariable 
interests of mankind." 

" There are ministers who seek the tran- 
quillity of the state, and find their pleasure 
in securing that tranquillity." 

What can be more abstruse ? Few among 
us would attempt to be original on such 
themes. 



70 AROUND THE WORLD. 

This system of competitive literary exam- 
inations, here imperfectly described, has been 
maintained more than a thousand years. 
There are records proving this. On the first 
day, three essays and one piece of poetry 
are required ; each essay must have seven 
hundred words, the poetry must consist of 
seven hundred and sixteen lines, with five 
words in each. The pieces required on the 
other two days vary from this. The success- 
ful competitors are immortalized in fame; 
their triumph goes down to posterity on the 
family tablets, is noted on their tombs, secures 
honor to their children. 

Though I visited this " Hall " with Arch- 
deacon Gray, and received minute informa- 
tion from him, I am since indebted for helps 
to my memory to a paper read before a liter- 
ary society in Canton, by Dr. J. G. Ker. 

One morning some of my party were stand- 
ing by the window of a friend's house in 
Canton which overlooks the canal with its 
brown water and crowd of sampans. As they 



CAWTON, STJANGHAT, SmGAPORE, MACAO. 71 

watched the different phases of domestic life 
in those habitations, one of the party, familiar 
with them, remarked that there was probably 
a wedding, or rather the festivities attendant 
upon a wedding, in one of the nearest sam- 
pans, as she had heard a young woman wail- 
ing the night before. She said it is a custom 
with Chinese brides to pass the night before 
their weddings in bewailing their future trou- 
bles ; for, as they seldom see their intended 
masters before the wedding, there is great 
uncertainty in connection with their new 
mode of life ; generally it is going from one 
form of servitude into one to which they had 
not ffrown accustomed. There seems to be 
no real wedding ceremony, but a feast and a 
sort of reception for three days. During that 
time the young couple perform some acts of 
devotion before the ancestral tablets. After 
that the bridegroom takes his partner to his 
father's boat, where she cooks the rice, scrubs, 
and helps row for the rest of her life. 

The young ladies thought that they would 



72 AROUND THE WORLD. 

go to the reception. Accordingly, eight of 
them crowded into the sampan (being told 
that no cards were used) and sat in Turkish 
fashion on the nice floor. The bride came be- 
fore them in a red dress, saluted them, then 
brought in a tray of square cakes, which had 
been made with peanut oil. She then gave 
them tea in small cups such as children play 
with. They considered that, as the tea 
was made with the foul water of the canal, 
occupied by a crowd of sampans, it could 
not be in the highest degree tasteful. As they 
went out, they were told that the adjoining 
boat was the home of the bridegroom's father, 
where the bride would the next day find her 
home. A roasted pig, with its garniture of 
herbs, was exposed on deck, but it did not 
awaken any desire. 

We were greatly favored, through the in- 
fluence of Archdeacon Gray, in having the 
rare privilege of being admitted to the bed- 
chamber of " the god of Walled Cities." We 



CANTOK, SnAlTGHAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. 73 

climbed up antique, decayed stairs into a for- 
lorn room, not so inviting as apartments in 
some barns at home. There was the huge 
god, six feet in height ; his slippers were at 
the side of his bed ; his garments were on 
pegs ; the wash-stand was there, with its fur- 
niture, and the water was poured into the 
bowl ready for use. His Majesty was of wood 
fantastically painted. We were taken into 
his wife's apartment, which was the next room. 
There women resort to make petitions with 
vows, promising the goddess a new dress, for 
example, if their prayer is heard. 

In several temples we saw men consulting 
the gods in some affairs of interest to them. 
Kneeling and touching the ground with the 
forehead nine times, they would then take a 
long box of sticks, each with a number in- 
scribed on it, shake it till a stick fell out, 
which was then handed to the priest, who 
consulted a book, and told the petitioner the 
answer to his prayer. 

We came in one temple to the " Chamber 



74 AROUITD THE WORLD. 

of Horrors." There in ten cells were de- 
picted the torments awaiting the wicked in 
the next world. In the tenth the victims 
were coming out in the shape of hideous 
wild animals, the blessed dead, on eminences 
around, looking down with various expres- 
sions on their faces. We came also to the 
"Temple of the Five Genii," — Fire, Earth, 
Water, Wood, and Metals. These Genii origi- 
nally came to the city on five rams, which 
were turned to stone, for perpetuity, and *re- 
main there to this day, uncouth, almost shape- 
less blocks. A tower said to be six hundred 
years old stands in honor of them. The large 
bell covered with Chinese characters is 
doomed to silence ; for there is a tradition that 
if struck, some great misfortune would fall 
upon the city. A visitor inadvertently 
striking it would excite consternation among 
the people. During a siege of Canton a 
piece of the bell was knocked out of it by a 
cannon-ball. 

While we were detained by rain in a tern- 



CANTON, SHANGHAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. 75 

pie, the Buddhist priests showed us much 
kindness, setting a table in the courtyard 
overlooking a sheet of water, and giving us 
clear tea in little cups, on trays having, each, 
compartments filled with dried fruits. It 
seemed strange to be '' sitting at meat in an 
idol's temple." While we were there, the 
priests descried the sunshades which some of 
the party had brought with them. Their 
amusement was not exceeded by any pleasure 
manifested by children at the sight of new 
things. They opened them, they shut them, 
turned them over and over, held them over 
one another, explaining to each other their 
use ; and one man, pointing to one of our um- 
brellas, said, " That I can understand ; but 
is this really an umbrella ? " 

As our party of four emerged from their 
chairs at each temple, crowds of a hundred or 
more would follow us to the gate, and wait 
there for us to re-appear. Mothers would 
lift little children to see the odd foreigners. 
Not one word, sign, or look of contempt or 



76 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

disrespect, however, did we witness daring 
the four or five days that we spent in the city. 
The streets being, most of them, only eight or 
ten feet wide, the people were frequently 
stopped by our chairs, and had to stand side- 
ways to let us pass, but never did they make 
us feel that we were intruders. About two 
months after this, the affair at Tientsin hap- 
pened, and the people in many parts of the 
empire were excited to some degree against 
foreigners. Receiving an invitation to re- 
visit Canton, I was strongly advised not to go, 
on the ground, that, while mercantile men, ob- 
viously on business, might visit the place in 
safety, the sight of a foreigner, led there by 
curiosity, might awaken suspicion and lead to 
violence. 

Archdeacon Gray is well known, to all who 
have visited Canton. He is in the prime of 
life, an accomplished gentleman, making you 
love him at once by his beautifully courteous 
manner, his fine intelligence. He gave me 
a cordial invitation to occupy his pulpit on 



CANTON, SnANGHAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. 77 

sabbath morning ; but there was to be a com- 
munion service at the Presbyterian Mission, 
with some additions to the church, and I de- 
clined. -But he came in the intermission, and 
insisted on my preaching in the afternoon, 
which I did. His house and church are on a 
bend of the Canton Eiver ; and perhaps even 
our Hudson River does not anywhere present 
a finer view. His house is full of rare Chinese 
curiosities, which he is happy to show to visit- 
ors. I preached in the evening to the Pres- 
byterian Mission, at the house of one of their 
number. This Mission is exerting a decided 
influence ; its supporters may well be encour- 
aged. I found a strong feeling among them 
in favor of sending out single ladies, in com- 
panies, to live together and to labor in con- 
junction with the Mission. There* is a de- 
cided conviction in the Canton Mission 
that ladies, living together, and working un- 
der the direction of a mission, will be the 
most powerful of auxiliaries. 

I spent four or five days at Shanghai, on 



78 AROUND THE WORLD. 

another excursion from Hong Kong. This 
I described in a letter to Bishop Eastburn, 
as several things which I saw there in connec- 
tion with Episcopal friends made it agreeable 
to acquaint him with them. The letter 
was kindly published in " The Christian Wit- 
ness " of this city, and copied by " the Boston 
Transcript.'' I take this opportunity to in- 
sert the most of that letter, from one of 
the papers above mentioned. 

Hong Kong, China, October 10, 1870. 

My dear Bishop Eastburis", — I shall not 
soon forget that the first letter which met my 
eye on reaching San Francisco, after a voyage 
of one hundred and eleven days, was in your 
handwriting. I have since then been so 
pleasantly reminded of you, through a good 
man's influence here in China, that I must tell 
you of it. Being on a visit to Shanghai, I 
was invited to attend worship in a Chinese 
chapel live miles from the city. We went 
through the fields in chairs borne by coolies, 



CANTOy, SHANGHAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. 70 

till we came to the village where trade was 
plying all its arts and handicraft its imple- 
ments, unconscious of the sabbath. A small 
church-bell notified us that we were near the 
chapel; and soon we emerged from heathen- 
ish sounds and sights into a Christian temple, 
neat and orderly in all its appointments. 
There were about one hundred and fifty 
Chinese assembled for worship, which was 
conducted by a very good-looking Chinaman, 
tall, and of pleasing address. Though igno- 
rant of every word he said, my attention was 
riveted by his agreeable action and manner, 
eminently becoming a preacher of the gospel, 
and, withal, truly eloquent, if his whole ap- 
pearance and the attention of the people 
were true indications. I could see that the 
services were liturgical, from the responses, 
and from the Chinese books used by the peo- 
ple, the little girls around me keeping my 
attention directed to the place in the service ; 
though very little good did this do me, except 
that it helped me to keep my book right side 



80 ABOUND THK WORLD. 

up. The service ended with singing," There 
is a happy land," the tune so familiarly known 
in our sabbath schools. The preacher came 
to speak with me before service, with his 
welcome in very good English ; and after 
service he came again and gave me much in- 
formation. He has been rector there sixteen 
years, the chapel being built and he being 
sustained there by the munificence, said he, 
" of a Mr. William Appleton, of Boston." 
This made my heart leap for joy, to come so 
far into heathenism and find myself in a 
Christian temple erected and maintained by 
a fellow-citizen of Boston. Mr. Appleton I 
did not know personally, though I once 
received a very kind note from him with a 
pamphlet. But I had long cherished a sincere 
love for him from many impressions of his 
truly estimable character. I was led to think, 
What a memorial of Christian zeal has he 
built in this distant land! What pleasure 
it must afford his happy spirit in heaven to 
look down on this place of Christian worship 



aANT02T, SHANGHAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. 81 

in the depths of heathenism ! What a noble 
use of wealth, blessing a multitude of peo- 
ple who but for him might have been left in 
heathenish ignorance ! I told the preacher 
that I should report his chapel and his labors 
to Christian friends at home, and I mentioned 
your name in speaking of those who would 
be glad to hear of him. He desired me to 
give his respects to you; so it is my pleas- 
ure to send you the respectful and Chris- 
tian salutation of the Reverend Wong 
Kwong Chi, of one of the villages of Shang- 
hai. 

As we came out of the chapel, our ears were 
saluted with some musical instruments from 
a house where people were making a tumult 
over a dead person. Little knew they of 
that "happy land, far, far away," which the 
people of Appleton Chapel had just been 
celebrating. I felt a desire to tell good men 
in Boston that there yet remaineth much land 
to be possessed here by Christian philanthro- 
pists ; that they can readily find villages of 



82 AROUND THE WORLD. 

sixty thousand waiting each for its chapel, to 
say nothing of cities with millions in them, 
where it would be easy to begin a work for 
the ransomed spirits of good men and women 
to review with pleasure in heaven. Truly 
enviable is that rich Christian who can em- 
ploy wealth to do good for him when he 
is with Christ. The Appleton Chapel at 
Shanghai seemed to me a cup of cold water, 
the donor of which is not losing his re- 
ward. 

From the steamboat-landing at Shanghai, 
looking across the river, you see a comely 
church of fair proportions, surrounded in 
part with banyan and bamboo trees, affording 
it a perpetually verdant appearance. It is a 
stone chapel for seamen, built through the 
efforts of A. A. Hayes, Jr., of the firm of 
Olyphant & Co., and son of Dr. A. A. 
Hayes, of Boston. It is under the care of the 
Eev. Mr. Syle, Presbyterian, a devoted and 
most useful man. A large churchyard has 
there received the remains of seamen of all 



CANTON-, SHANGHAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. 83 
V 

nations. It is within the same enclosure with 
the church, ornamented with plants and trees, 
and is nearly filled with the dead. It has been 
opened fourteen years, and there are four- 
te'en hundred interments. The graves are in 
close and even rows, for economy of room, so 
that this large collection of the dead looks 
like a buried battalion who have lain down 
by platoons. The orderly disposal of them 
has a saddening influence. I never before 
felt that there is a natural appropriateness in 
having a burial-place, as Job says of the land 
of the departed, " a land without any order." 
We feel that promptitude and exactness are 
out of place at a funeral ; but slowness and 
delay are congenial. Surely, these ranks of 
the dead will not rise by roll-call, though they 
lay down in such good order. They made me 
think of some lines of an uncle of Sir Walter 
Scott, a sea-captain, on a sunken man-of-war, 
all her crew on board: — 

" In death's dark road at anchor fast they stay, 
Till Heaven's loud signal shall in thunder roar ; 



84 AROUND THE WORLD. 

Then, starting up, all hands shall quick obey ; 

Sheet home the topsail, and with speed unmoor.'* * 

One of the most charming places in China, 
is Macao, three hoars distant by steamer from 
Hong Kong, the people of which place resort 
to Macao in the hot season, as the fine sea- 
breezes there greatly mitigate the heat. The 
drives about the place, commanding in every 
direction an open sea-view, are beautiful. 
The old church of St. Paul, the most of which 
remains, though ruined by fire, is a fine speci- 
men of architecture. The most notable thing 
in Macao is the grotto where Camoens, the 
Portuguese poet, died in banishment for pub- 
lishing a satire on the viceroy. The wild bot- 
any of the place, and the geological upheavals 
.which give clear signs of glacial action, are 

* I may as well give here all the lines of the " old tar," relating to the 
•hipwreck : — 

No more the geese shall cackle o'er the poop ; 

No more the hagpipe through the orlop sound; 
No more the midshipmen, a jovial group. 
Shall toast the girls, and push the hottle round. 



In death's dark road at anchor fast they stay, 
Till Heaven's loud signal shall in thunder roar; 

Then, starting up, all hands shall quick obey; 
Sheet home the topsail, and with speed unmoor. 



CANTON, SHANGHAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. 85 

remarkable. Bowlders are piled up here in 
ways which show a hydrodynamic force be- 
yond human skill. Near the grotto is a ceme- 
tery for foreigners; and, among the many 
sainted dead from missionary circles there 
entombed, the Christian traveller lingers with 
deep interest around the burial-place of 
Morrison. 

One sabbath morning I went with a Chris- 
tian friend through a wild district, in the 
neighborhood of a large city in China, to a 
mission station. The people were every- 
where at work ; nothing suggested the sabbath 
till we heard the little church-bell, whose 
notes were in pleasing contrast to the hum 
of business. We came to the mission com- 
pound, where two missionaries and their wives 
had their abode. The joy with which they 
welcomed us made us feel most deeply their 
isolation from Christian society. The sight 
of friends from America seemed to intensify 
their loneliness. Here were four beloved 
Christian people who were living in these 



86 AROUND THE WORLD. 

wilds to teach these heathen tribes the knowl- 
edge of God and of his Son. On inquiring what 
encouragement they found in their work, we 
were told that two or three women had lately 
shown a disposition to hear religious conver- 
sation and listen to the Scriptures. Immedi- 
ately we thought of four hundred millions in 
China and its dependencies, who were igno- 
rant of the true God. Here were three native 
women who were persuaded to listen to reli- 
gious reading. As we were preparing to leave, 
our missionary friends seemed to cling to us 
with strong affection. We were going back 
to America, leaving them in the solitudes of 
heathenism. They were far from unhappy, 
and their few tears were only the natural ex- 
pression of awakened memories. One of the 
missionary brethren, showing us the way to 
the gate, passed with us through a room 
where we saw, among gardening tools, some 
sheets of paper lying loose. There were so 
many of them, looking alike, that they at- 
tracted our notice. We found that the specks 



CANTON. SnANGUAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. 87 

on them were the eggs of silkworms. They 
were mere dots, as the reader familiar with 
the sight in books or nature, is aware. It 
occurred to me what a display of silk fabrics, 
with their rainbow colors, we had been look- 
ing upon ! how many ships are freighted 
with them ! how many millions of wealth they 
represent ! what a world of thought and feel- 
ing is associated with them! On those 
pieces of paper were the beginnings of silk, — 
a word, taken in all its connections and associa- 
tions, of mighty power. In those little specks 
one might fancy himself reading, '' By whom 
shall Jacob arise ? for he is small." We told 
our missionary brother, that, while he* raised 
silkworms and saw their cocoons, he surely 
would never despise the day of small things, 
— a lesson, he assured us,, which was often 
repeated to him and gave him encourage- 
ment. 

It is well for one who* believes in the ulti- 
mate prevalence of Christianity to come into 
China by the way of the Sandwich Islands. 



88 AROUND THE WORLD. 

He will receive confirmation to his faith, he 
will be defended against temptations to un- 
belief when surrounded as he will be iu 
China with one-half the population of the 
earth ignorant of the true God, by having 
seen in the Sandwich Islands what the gos- 
pel has done among a race who were as un- 
likely to be converted as any portion of the 
human family. If he comes from his ship 
and steps ashore on the sabbath in China, 
and sees coopers and blockmakers and 
boat-builders busily at work, the tailors' 
shops filled with men plying their needles, 
the stationers ruling paper, the coolies, in- 
stead of horses or mules, carrying every 
thing, which ever lades a ship, from the quay 
to the storehouses, the thought will come 
over him. What progress is the knowledge 
of the gospel likely to make among this 
people ? Perhaps he spends a sabbath in the 
country. Here he may look to see the peo- 
ple withdrawn from the requirements which 
the business of a seaport makes of the in- 



CANTONy SHANGHAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. 89 

habitants ; but in the country he will find 
the people as busy with their handicraft or 
trade as the people of the city, giving no 
sign that the idea of the sabbath and of the 
God of the sabbath has visited their minds. 
He will be overwhelmed with the contempla- 
tion of four hundred millions of human be- 
ings utterly destitute of the knowledge of 
God. He remembers how at home his 
heart used to glow on hearing accounts of 
additions to native churches, and the rehear- 
sal was followed by joyful missionary hymns 
sung impromptu, — 

" Yes, we trust the day is breaking ; 
Joyful times are near at hand ; " 

and he asks himself whether he is losing his 
confidence in the ultimate triumph of Chris- 
tianity, and in the sufficiency of divine pow- 
er to turn the hearts of nations, as the 
rivers of waters are turned. If he be a 
firm believer in the Bible, he will say, that, 
while he remembers the conquest of Canaan, 



90 AROUND THE WOULD. 

especially its first great achievement, the cap- 
ture of Jericho, his faith never can falter. 
Were not the aborigines of Canaan devoted 
to destruction by the Almighty, and their 
land apportioned to the tribes, with minute 
directions how to take possession of it, the 
very line of march prescribed, the great 
tribe of Judah in the forefront ? And did 
not our Lord spring out of Judah ? Has he 
not upon his vesture and upon his thigh a 
name written, — King of kings and Lord 
of lords? While, Dn returning to his Chris- 
tian ordinances at home a Christian trav- 
eller in China may be less excited than he 
used to be there at the report of a few con- 
versions among the heathen, because he will 
have an enlarged idea of the gross dark- 
ness which covers the people, he will only 
have exchanged his former confidence in 
man for a more entire confidence in God. 
The accumulation of difficulties in the way 
of the gospel he will regard only as those 
barrels of water which were poured on 



CANTON, SHANGHAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. 91 

Elijah's altar, serving to make the fire 
from heaven more triumphant. 

Going into a monastery in China with a 
clergyman who could converse in Chinese, 
we saw among the inmates a woman who 
seemed to be ever praying as she sat a little re- 
tired from the rest. The superior told us that 
she was praying all the time, being overheard 
frequently in the night upon her bed in sup- 
plication. He said that there was some great 
burden upon her mind which she would not 
disclose. She was evidently not insane ; and, 
from all that I could learn about her, I came 
to the conclusion that she was under con- 
viction of sin; sinfulness, rather than any 
particular transgression, was the burden upon 
her heart. That there are many throughout 
the heathen world thus exercised, we cannot 
question ; the second chapter of Eomans speaks 
of them, among others, " with the work of the 
law written in their hearts." They may be 
few compared with the whole heathen world ; 
yet how interesting to think that such may 



92 AROUND THE WORLD. 

be in a state of mind fitting them to accept 
the gospel, should it be made known to thenu 
and that thej will not perish merely for not 
being acquainted with it. Thus, where sin 
abounds, grace may much more abound, choos- 
ing its subjects independently of hmnan in- 
structors. "Thou canst not tell whither it 
goeth," — this superhuman agency. This 
thought is some little relief to one as he 
wanders about in those regions of the shadow 
of death, impressed by much that he sees 
with the reflection how true to the letter is 
the apostle's description, in the first chapter 
of Romans, of the heathen world. 

The party of young friends who called on 
the bride also called at the house of an aris- 
tocratic Chinese family, with whom one of their 
number was acquainted. There were several 
young daughters and sons in the family, who 
all spoke some words of English. A mission- 
ary's daughter acted as interpreter. The 
Chinese young ladies brought out their state 
dresses, which were heavily embroidered with 



CANTON, SHANGHAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. 93 

silver and gold. They put them on their 
visitors, made them walk about the court- 
yard, following them with shouts of laughter. 
They then gave them cake and cups of clear 
tea. One lady belonging to the family 
smoked a long pipe, and offered another pipe, 
with opium, to her guests. The Chinese 
young ladies showed their little feet, appar- 
ently with much pride, to the visitors: three 
inches and a half each was the measure of 
nearly all the feet. 

In a school for girls taught by a missionary 
lady, the visitors saw pupils from five to fif- 
teen years. The feet of these children were 
generally swathed, and the girls showed, by 
their faces, great pain. Mothers came in to 
listen while the teacher was talking to the 
children. The girls, when reciting, stood with 
their backs to the teacher, a mark of respect. 
They sang several of our familiar sabbath- 
school hymns. 

The steamer from Shanghai to Hong Kong 
put in at Amoy to bring the cargo of a dis- 



94 AROUND THE WORLD. 

abled bark to Hong Kong. This gave some 
of my family who had been making a visit 
to Shanghai an opportunity to see Amoy. 
It is situated on a barren, hilly island; its 
streets are as narrow as lanes. Going through 
them in chairs, you come out upon a hilly 
district, with few trees, covered with remark- 
able rocks, many of them bowlders, not set- 
tled so far in the ground as most rocks, but 
lifted from it, some of them on their smallest 
ends, and some leaning toward each other, 
making natural rooms, with mossy floors, 
and an opening at the top. Some of them 
are used as temples on a small scale ; idols, 
discolored by age and damp, are perched in 
them. Some real temples are built of the 
largest bowlders. In one of them, as one of 
the party was sitting on the stool in front of 
the idol, looking at the hideous images with 
which the temple was filled, expressing her 
wonder that human beings prayed to such 
things, one of the missionaries present asked 
an old priest if they really did believe in 



CAN-TON, SHANGHAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. 95 

them. He said he could not tell whether 
the people did believe in them or not. The 
images might, or they might not, be gods ; 
but " it was the custom to worship them ; 
and, after all, whether they heard or not, 
it amounted to about the same thing as the 
worship by Christians of their God.'* 

The foreigners, merchants, missionaries, 
and others, do not, as a general thing, live 
in the city, but on a small island across the 
harbor, rocky, like the larger island where 
the city is built, but not quite so dreary 
and barren. Attempts have been made to 
fertilize it, not wholly without success. 
Many of the houses are attractive, com- 
manding a good sea-view. 

From a great cave called the " Tiger's 
Mouth/' formed by two rocks projecting 
from the side of a hill, a flat one forming 
the lower jaw, or the floor of the cave, 
and the upper stone curving over it, making 
a good resemblance to an animal's mouth, 
you look down upon a wild, barren tract of 



96 AROUND THE WORLD. 

country, where the rocks, my informant said, 
reminded her of almonds stuck into the top 
of a Christmas pudding, or as if giants had 
been having a battle, and their missiles had 
been left on the field in the reckless position 
where they fell. One rock, about eighty tons 
in weight, was balanced on another larger 
rock so evenly that one man, putting forth 
all his strength, could make it tilt slightly. 
They say that a typhoon makes it rock per- 
ceptibly. Just below it is a small Chinese 
cottage. The woman who occupied it was 
asked if she was not afraid to live there, for 
if the bowlder should tilt a little too much, 
one end of it would go through her roof 
But she said, " No, it is ' Fung Shuy,' and 
will bring good luck to my, dwelling." 

This leads me to speak of " Fung Shuy." 
Though the literal meaning of " Fung Shuy " 
is " wind and water," this does not give any 
idea of the thing. 

The Chinese regard the south as the source 
of good influence, inasmuch as vegetable life, 



CANTON, SHANGHAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. 97 

with all the genial influences of spring and 
summer, are from that region. The north, 
they perceive, is the source of death to the 
vegetable kingdom. As animals partake of 
the diverse influences proceeding from these 
two opposite regions, they infer that men 
are susceptible to the same. They suppose, 
therefore, that there is a vital influence mov- 
ing all the time from south to north. This 
may be obstructed. To secure its full effect, 
they prefer to have their dwellings front 
south ] for they hold that from the north 
evil influences are constantly proceeding. 
Even the dead, they believe, are susceptible 
to these adverse influences. If graves are 
placed so as to meet good influences, it is 
called good Fung Shuy. It is a subject of 
great study to ascertain the influences which 
promote good Fung Shuy and hinder the 
bad. Any thing — as a hill, rock, trees — 
standing due north, and not very remote, 
especially if the region toward the south is 
unobstructed, and particularly if water is in 



98 AROUND THE WORLD. 

that direction, is good Fung Shuy. There 
are men who may be called professors of 
Fung Shuy, who are experts in the science. 
The woman in Amoy thought that the bowlder 
near her house was good Fung Shuy. The 
term may be defined. The science of positions 
favoring good, and shielding from bad, influ- 
ences. This is related to the extensive sub- 
ject of ancestral worship, which would lead 
me too far from my narrative. 

One who had for several years been learn- 
ing the Cantonese dialect gave me some ac- 
count of it, of which the following is a part : — 

There are eight tones, — four high, and four low : 

High. 1. Ascending. 2. Circumflex. 3. Departing. 4. 
Depressed. 

Low. 1. The voice suddenly drops. 2. Low circumflex. 
3. Low departing. 4. Falling. 

Example, Jesus is pronounced Yea-so. Yea has the first 
low tone ; so the first high. 

To show the difference in the meanings of words, according 
to their pronunciation, take the following : — 
Mai [circumflex], is, To buy. 
Mai [low], is, Do not. 



CANTON, SHANGHAI, SINGAPORK, MACAO. 99 

Wan [circumflex], is, To trouble. 
Wan [low], is To hunt. 

^^Pidgin-English" is a singular form of 
speech which the Chinese language assumes 
when the natives are first attempting to use 
English. Pidgin means business. You are 
made by it to think of the dialect which we 
fall into in talking to infants. If any one can 
explain why infants are supposed to under- 
stand us better when we make our words ter- 
minate in ee ory,he may proceed and explain 
the natural philosophy of Pidgin-English. In 
talking to a Chinaman you find yourself, as 
it were, addressing an infantile capacity, im- 
itating his own Pidgin way of speaking, even 
in talking to an adult. I will give one or two 
specimens of Pidgin-English, which I found in 
print. The first is Norval's Narrative, taken, 
as the reader hardly needs to be informed, 
from Rev. Dr. Home's tragedy of " Douglas." 



100 AROUND THE WORLD. 



NORVAL'S NARRATIVE. 

My name is Norval. On the Grampian hills 

My father feeds his flock, a frugal swain, 

Whose constant cares were to increase his store 

And keep his only son, myself, at home. 

For I had heard of battles, and I longed 

To follow to the' field some warlike lord. 

And Heaven soon granted what my sire denied. 

This moon which rose last night, round as my shield, 

Had not yet filled her horns, when by her light 

A band of fierce barbarians from the hills 

Rushed like a torrent down upon the vale 

Sweeping our flocks and herds. The shepherds tied 

For safety and for succor. I alone 

AVith bended bow and quiver full of arrows 

Hovered about the enemy, and marked 

The road he took, then hasted to my friends, 

Wliom, with a troop of fifty chosen men, 

I met advancing. The pursuit I led 

Till we o'ertook the spoil-encumbered foe. 



CANTON, SUANGUAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. 101 



PIDGIN-ENGLISH OF NORVAL'S NAKRATIVE. 

My name belong ^ Nerval. Topside tliat Grampian hill 

My father makee pay^ chow chow^ he sheep. 

He smallee heartee man ; too muchee take care that dolla, 

gallo. 
So fashion he wanchee keep my : * counta one plecie chilo/ 

stop he own side. 
My no wanchee. Wanchee long that largee mandoli.® 
Little teem/ Joss pay my what thing ray father no likee pay.* 
That moon last nightee get up loune, alia same my hat ; 
No go up full, no got square ; that plenty piecie man,® 
That lobbel man,^'' too muchee qui-si,^^ alia same that tiger, 
Chop chop come down that hillee, catchee that sheep long that 

cow. 
That man custom take care, too muchee quick lun way. 
My one piecie owne spie eye,^^ see that ladlone man what side 

he walkee. 
Hi-yah ! No good chancie findee catchee my flen.^^ 
Too piecie loon choon lun catchee that lobbel man ; " he 
No can walkee welly quick ; he pocket too much full up. 



I Common word for " is." 2 3 Pastures. * Me. s Considering I am his 
only child. ^That great Mandarin. ''In a little time. » Providence 
(Joss) provides what my father would not. »That band. 10 Robber. 
11 Very fierce ; chop chop : — quick. 12 My eye alone watched that robber, 
« Could not rally any friends. " Two of us soon caught up with liim. 



102 AliOUKD THE WOULD. 

We fought and conquered. Ere a sword was drawn, 

An arrow from my bow had pierced their chief, 

Who wore that day the arms which now I wear. 

Returning home in triumph, I disdained 

The shepherd's slothful life ; and having heard 

That our good king had summoned his bold peers 

To lead their warriors to the Carron side, 

I left my father's house, and took with me 

A chosen servant to conduct my steps. 

Yon trembling coward, who forsook his master. 

Journeying with this intent, I passed these towers, 

And, Heaven-directed, came this day to do 

The happy deed that gilds my humble name. 



The following is a better specimen, there 
being fewer liberties in the rendering: — 

EXCELSIOR. 

The shades of night were falling fast, 
As through an Alpine village passed 
A youth, who bore, mid snow and ice, 
A banner with the strange device, 
Excelsior I 



CANTON, SHANGHAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. 103 

So fashion knockee he largee.^^ He head man no got shottee 

far^^ 
My knockee he head. Hi-yah ! My number one stlong." 
Catchee he jacket, long he trouse, galo.^^ You like look see ? 
My go puttee on just now. My go home, largie heart just 

now. 
My no likee take care that sheep. So fashion my hear you go 

fightee this side,^' 
My takee one servant, come you country, come helpie you . 
He heart all same cow ; too muchee fear ; lun away ; 
Masquie !^*^ Joss take care pay my come your house. ^ 



15 We beat him, largely, i^ Before he had time to shoot. "I am very 
strong. 18 Took his clothes; (galo: an exclamation.) is I hear you have 
war. ^o-'j^^ever mind," a Portuguese exclamation. 21 providence led my 
way hither. — N". B. The Chinese do not pronounce the letter r ; for " run," 
they say "lun." 



TOPSIDE GALAH. 

That nightee teem ^ he come chop, chop,' 
One young man walkee, no can stop. 
Colo masquie,^ icee masquie. 
He got flag chop b'long welly culio see ; * 
Topside Galah. 



^ 2 That night-time drew on fast. ^No matter for the cold. ^He had a 
flag which was very curious. 



104 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

His brow was sad ; his eye beneath 
Flashed like a falchion from its sheath ; 
And like a silver clarion rung 
The accents of that unknown tongue. 
Excelsior ! 

In happy homes he saw the light 
Of household fires gleam warm and bright ; 
Above, the spectral glaciers shone, 
And from his lips escaped a groan, 
Excelsior ! 

" Try not the pass ! " the old man said ; 
" Dark lowers the tempest overhead ; 
The roaring torrent is deep and wide ! " 
And loud that clarion voice replied, 
Excelsior ! 

" Oh, stay ! " the maiden said, " and rest 
Thy weary head upon this breast ! " 
A tear stood in his bright blue eye ; 
But still he answered, with a sigh, 
Excelsior i 



CANTON, SHANGHAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO, 105 

He too rauchee soUy ; ^ one piecie ^ eve 
Lookee sharp so fashion, alia same mi ; ^ 
He talkee largee, talkee stlong,' 
Too muchee culio,' alia same gong. 
Topside Galah. 

Inside any housee he can see light ; 
Any piecie loom ^^ got fire all light ? 
He look see plenty ice more high, 
Inside he mouf he plenty cly ; ^^ 

Topside Galah. 

" No can walkee ! " ole man speakee he ; ^ 
" Bimeby lain ^^ come ; no can see ; 
Hab got water, welly wide ! " 
Masquie ! mi " must go topside ; 
Topside Galah. 

" Man-man ! " ^^ one galo ^® talkee he ; 
" What for you go topside ? look see." 
" Nother teem," he makee plenty ely.^^ 
Masquie ; alia teem he walkee plenty high.^^ 
Topside Galah. 

s Sorry. ^Each of his eyes. ' The same as " mine." s Strong. => Very 
ciiriotis. 10 Every room. "Cry. 12 old man said to him i"'Rain. "|. 
i^.Stop. 1*5 A girl said to him. 1^ He earnestly answered, i* All the time 
he kept on walking. 



106 AROUND THE WOULD. 

" Beware the pine-tree's withered brancli ! 
Beware the awful avalanche ! " 
This was the peasant's last Good-night ; 
A voice replied, far up the height, 
Excelsior ! 

At break of day, as heavenward 

. The pious monks of Saint Bernard 
Uttered the oft-repeated prayer, 
A voice cried through the startled air, 

Excelsior ! 

A traveller, by the faithful hound, 
Half buried in the snow was found, 
Still grasping in his hand of ice 
That banner with the strange device, 
Excelsior ! 

There in the twilight cold and gray. 
Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay ; 
And from the sky, serene and far, 
A voice fell like a falling star, 
Excelsior I 



CANTON, SBANGTIAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. 107 

" Take care that spilum tlee,^^ young man ! 
" Take care that icee ! " he no man man ; ^ 
That coolie chin chin ^^ he good night ; 
He talkee, " Mi can go all night.'* 
Topside Galah. 

Joss pidgin ^ man chop chop begin,^ 
Morning teem that Joss chin chin ; ^ 
No see any man ; he plenty fear, 
Cause some man talkee,^ he can hear. 
Topside Galah. 

Young man makee die ; ^ one largee dog see ; 
Too muchee bobbery findee he,^ 
Hand too muchee colo ; ^ inside can stop, 
Alia same piecee flag, got culio chop,^ *° 
Topside Galah. 



^9 Withered tree. 20 He would not stop. 21 That peasant bid him good- 
night. 22 The religious man. 23 Soon. 24 Religious address. 25 jje heard 
a voice. 26 Had to meet death. 27 With difficulty found him. 28 Very cold. 
29 The same flag with its curious device, so Chop is brand, stamp, quality; 
e.g. first chop. 



108 AROUND THE WORLD. 

The mysteries of human speech are im- 
pressively illustrated in the ease with which 
the children of foreign extraction, brought 
up from infancy in China, learn and skilfully 
use all these tones and the other niceties of 
the language. An ear accustomed to music, 
of course, is a great help in learning this lan- 
guage ; but, when a person is in the least dull 
of hearing, it is not easy to distinguish be- 
tween some of the words. One thought im- 
pressed me in thinking of the language as 
a barrier against the rest of the world : If 
the Chinese nature is naturally upright, and 
if sin is owing wholly to contamination by in- 
tercourse with depraved people, how happens 
it that China does not present us with a peo- 
ple of saints ? having been kept by their lan- 
guage, as they have been, from mixing with 
men. That language has done more than 
their great wall in separating them from the 
rest of mankind. 

We had a typhoon at Hong Kong, Sept. 29. 



CANTON, STIANGIJAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. 109 

I was spending a fortnight at the house 
of Dr. Legge. On sabbath evening, at sun- 
down, there was an appearance of rain, with 
some unusual disturbances in the air ; and soon 
the servants came into the parlor with planks 
and joists to strengthen the windows, the same 
precaution being used outside. The wind 
rapidly increased, till the strength of our gale 
of Sept. 8, 1869, had but a faint resemblance 
to it. Instead of one blast, there are lulls ; 
then a renewed tempest, increasing in strength 
while the typhoon lasts, which in this case 
continued from sundown on Sunday till Tues- 
day at daybreak. Hundreds of lives were 
lost in Hong Kong Harbor. The ships were 
almost invisible from the shore, the spoon- 
drift being nearly equal to a thick fog. We 
were grateful that the typhoon did not find 
us at sea. We could understand the answers 
of old sea-captains, who on some one in our 
hearing saying that he should like to witness 
a typhoon, shook their heads, looked grave, and 
said, " You will never wish to see another.'* 

10 



110 AROXJND THE WORLD. 

Another excursion — by favor of the Messrs. 
Heard, and of Captain Arthur H. Clark of 
the steamer "Suwo Nada/' plying between 
Hong Kong and Singapore — was made to 
Singapore. On the way, we stopped at Sai- 
gon, a French port in Cochin China, from 
which the French were then compelling the 
Prussians to retire. Rice is largely exported 
from this place, and opium is received to an 
amount which tells a fearful story. Here we 
saw noble specimens of tigers, which are 
declared by authors of high repute to have 
devoured, on an average, one man a day 
through the year, not many years ago, in 
some parts of the East Indies. They swim 
over to the islands from the main lands. 
They approach their victim from behind, 
felling him with a blow upon the head. 

Singapore is about five days by steamer 
from Hong Kong, including the visit to 
Saigon. At Singapore you feel that you are 
in the East Indies, from the luxuriant foliage, 
the birds of marvellous plumage, the plants 



CANTON, SHANGHAI, SINGAPORE, MACAO. Ill 

such as you never fancied, the groves of cocoa- 
nuts yielding a supply exceeding belief The 
common saying there is, that the cocoanut 
serves ninety-nine purposes. The rough 
husk, by being subjected to a powerful pres- 
sure, is at once reduced to a fibrous state, 
ready tq be worked into coir mats, or spun 
into cheap rope. The natural bend of the 
husk adapting it to the human head, it is care- 
fully prepared and dyed, then worn. 

A principal road runs close by the sea, is 
well shaded, and abounds in delicious odors 
from the gardens. The house and grounds 
of a rich Chinaman, Mr. Whampoa, are visited 
by foreigners as objects of interest. Rare 
East-India plants, ponds filled with the pink 
lotus, vines trained or trimmed in fantastic 
shapes, — such as eagles, deer, lions, and many 
others, — on frames, trees with great variety 
of foliage, make the place attractive. A six- 
legged turtle, which we examined, was an 
object of much interest to its owner. He is 
a venerable man, speaks English well, gives 



112 AROUND THE WORLD. 

free admission to visitors introduced by any 
one with whom he is acquainted. 

It made us feel that we were indeed in East- 
ern regions to be contiguous, as we were one 
day, to the residence of a Rajah, the name 
savoring of Oriental life. 



V. 



MAOTL A. — HOMEWARD BOUND. 

My country, sir, is not a single spot 
-Of such a naould, or fixed to such a clime; 
No I 'tis the social circle of my friends, 
The loved community in which I'm linked, 
And in whose welfare all my wishes centre. 

MiLiiER's Mahomet. 

Whose heart hath ne'er within him hurned 
As home his footsteps he hath turned 
From wandering on a foreign strand ? 

W. Scott : Lay of the Last Minstrel. 

There hlend the ties that strengthen 

Our hearts in hours of grief, 
The silver links that lengthen 

Joy's visits when most brief. 
Then dost thou sigh for pleasure ? 

Oh ! do not widely roam, 

But seek that hidden treasure 

At home, dear home I 

Bernard Barton. 



N the 22d of November we left 
Hong Kong for Manila, our agents 
concluding to wait no longer for 
hemp to fall, but to load the ship with sugar. 
We took in three million pounds, — enough, 




10* 



113 



114 AROUND THE WORLD. 

we were told, to supply our whole country 
one day. 

We reached Manila Bay Dec. 1, but 
would not have wondered had we been 
weeks, mstead of ^^e days, in contest with 
the current and head winds. One day we 
tacked fourteen times off Manila. At length 
we dropped anchor in the spacious roadstead, 
and waited for the health officers and the 
custom-house officials to inspect us. No one 
is allowed to have any communication with 
a vessel until she is officially visited. Steam- 
tugs would be an advantage to weary mari- 
ners contending against the current in sight 
of anchorage. 

We were the guests of a gentleman and his 
wife, — he a member of the house of Messrs. 
Peele, Hubbell, & Co. We were there seven 
weeks, and, even if delicacy permitted, lan- 
guage would fail in the attempt to express 
what we enjoyed in that beautiful house. 
Situated at one end of the city in the parish 
of Santa Ana, we were removed from the 



MANILA. 115 

noise and tumult of business. The river 
runs near the house with a current of at least 
four miles an hour. Immense plantain-leaves 
stood round, looking like the blades of huge 
oars ; the banana hung in large clusters ; the 
garden was filled with many things to delight 
the eye. The house covered a large space. 
You enter it by a spacious driveway, roofed 
over within the main building. Stone steps 
lead up to the story on which are all the 
rooms in the house, high and wide, opening 
into the large hall. Instead of carpets, floors 
here are polished, by rubbing them with the 
plantain-leaf. The house was cool and in all 
respects most comfortable. The eye is re- 
freshed by constant verdure, the grass in 
December and January having the brilliant 
green which our early grass presents in the 
month of June. It seemed strange to be 
riding in open carriages at Christmas-time 
and January, with ladies in muslin dresses, 
or requiring only light shawls. The at- 
mosphere is clear, and the stars have so pecu- 



116 AROUND THE WORLD. 

liar a lustre as to be the subject of remark 
bj foreigners. The river runs about fifteen 
miles to a lake, by cocoanut groves, and in 
some places by steep cliifs nearly two hun- 
dred and fifty feet on each side, covered with 
foliage, and having small cascades. In the 
river there are as many as twenty-eight rap- 
ids. Some of our party ascended them in 
canoes, spending two days on an excursion 
with a company. One evening a party of 
gentlemen took a small steamer, the private 
property of a friend, and went with us up to 
the lake. It was a moonlight night : the 
East-Indian scenery, the curves in the steam, 
and at last the scenery of the lake, made 
the excursion enchanting. 

The society in Manila, composed of Ameri- 
can, English, Scotch, and Spanish people, 
was delightful. Their hospitalities, entertain- 
ments, and numberless courtesies make deep 
impressions upon a visitor. There are no 
unpleasant distinctions among them ; they 
maintain an agreeable freedom in their inter- 



MANILA, 117 

course. Indeed, one cannot spend a few 
weeks in Manila without feeling glad if it 
happens to be at the close of a long tour ; 
for, as it will be most likely to be pronounced 
the climax of his social experience, it will be 
appropriate to have it at the close. 

We were near the old Church of Santa 
Ana, whose bells many times a day remind 
the faithful of their devotions. They were 
playod skilfully, with a loud noise. At six 
o'clock in the afternoon, the native inhabit- 
ants pause wherever they may happen to be 
at the vesper bell, and perform their devo- 
tions. I frequently met the Archbishop and 
his secretary in an evening walk, who would 
stop suddenly when the bell struck, and, un- 
covering their heads, repeat their prayers. 
I visited most of the churches. Imposture 
nowhere reigns with more open demands 
upon the credulity of the people. In one of 
the churches there are large paintings of the 
" Holy Girdle," whose marvellous cures, and 
power over serpents, and the bestowment of 



118 AROUXD THE WORLD. 

blessings in answer to faith in it, are described 
in large letters for the people to read. Each 
of the many parishes has a monthly pro- 
cession, in which the population join. One 
evening we encountered a procession which 
blocked the street for two hours. Four thou- 
sand women, in black, filled each side of the 
wide street, chanting Scripture and prayers, 
the men occupying the middle of the street 
with an imposing show of images of canon- 
ized people surrounded with lighted chande- 
liers. Each woman in this procession had a 
lighted wax candle which she had bought of 
the priests, to be returned to them after the 
march. This is the source of a large reve- 
nue to the Church. These processions keep 
up a lively enthusiasm among the people. 

The manufacture of the Pina articles em- 
ploys the people at home. These articles, 
such as veils, handkerchiefs, &c., are made 
of the fibre of the pine-apple ; at almost 
every house in some of the poorer parts of 
the city you see this work on small frames, 



MANILA. 119 

exposed to the sun. The men are very 
many of them occupied in the training of 
game-cocks ; frequently every tenth man you 
meet will have one of these birds under his 
arm. One sabbath we were told there was 
a fight between a tiger and a buffalo on ex- 
hibition. The buffaloes are meek, docile ani- 
mals, used instead of oxen. Their horns are 
wide-spread and very long. The buffalo took 
the tiger on his horns, threw him high, and 
the fall indisposed him for further effort. 
Some of the most beautiful objects here are 
the trees filled with fireflies. Sometimes, all 
along a road, the trees will be crowned with 
the small creatures, their light constantly 
emitted ; so that the tree looks as though it 
were filled with gems. Few sights are more 
attractive. The inhabitants resort in the 
evening to the Pier, which is a solid struc- 
ture extending a sixteenth of a mile into the 
bay, a sea-view on all sides ; and once a 
week there is music by the bands, which 
draws crowds. Much of this Spanish music 



120 AROUND THE WORLD. 

is more sentimental than we are accustomed 
to hear addressed to the populace, exciting 
a thoughtful attention. 

Manila is the capital of Luzon, one of the 
principal of the Philippine Islands. The cli- 
mate in December and January was intense- 
ly hot. After nine o'clock in the morning, it 
was not agreeable to be out of doors, even 
to drive ; but at five in the afternoon, and 
in the evening, the cool sea-breezes made 
it pleasant to be abroad. Religious services 
are sustained on sahbath evenings by a few 
Christian friends at the house of one of their 
number, but there is no public place of Prot- 
estant worship there. It was instructive to 
go from China, from the depths of heathen 
idolatry, into the depths of formalism, under 
the name of Christianity. You question 
whether you have advanced at all into the 
light of truth ; for, though it is a relief to be 
where the Scriptures and the names and 
forms of Christianity are heard and seen, you 
are impressed with the bias of the human 



ANJER. 121 

heart to idolatry. To come from heathenism 
in China, and Roman-Catholic superstition in 
Manila, into Christian temples here at home, 
makes you wonder that only a certain num- 
ber of leagues of salt water separate between 
such places as Canton or Manila, and Boston, 
both in the same world. 

ANJER. 

We began our homeward voyage from 
Manila Jan. 20, and reached Anjer Feb. 1. 
Anjer is the eastern point of Java ; vessels 
pass it to and from the China seas. " Passed 
Anjer," in the marine reports, signifies that a 
vessel has left the China seas on her home- 
ward way, or has just entered them on her 
outward voyage. Anjer supplies vessels with 
poultry, vegetables, fruits, and water. On 
inquiring for bananas, we were told by a man 
who came on board that he would get us ^^ a 
fathom of them for a dollar." It was a large 
Oriental statement, with a basis of truth. 
11 



122 AROUND THE WORLD. 

Batavia is about seventy-five miles from An- 
jer ; the road to it is characterized by Dutch 
solidity and thoroughness. Opposite the 
hotel at Anjer is a banian-tree said to be the 
largest in diameter in that part of the v^orld, 
composed of shoots which have descended 
from the top, taken root, and become princi- 
pal parts of the tree. We saw from shore 
our ship under sail beating about against a 
head wind and current. The sight was ani- 
mating. We rowed off to her four miles, 
glad to be on board the noble thing which 
had borne us more than half round the world, 
and was waiting to complete the great circuit. 
As often as we now see in the marine record, 
" Passed Anjer," we recall the sensations with 
which we looked off from that lighthouse, 
which is the first or last object of interest to 
all who navigate those East-Indian seas. 

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 

It was extremely interesting to be ap- 
proaching this famous point. That great 



CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 123 

maritime revelation, the opening of a new 
route to India in 1487, the story of Bartholo- 
mew Diaz and Vasco da Gama, and of the 
first navigators around that point, who used 
to bury their journals and set up a stone 
pointing to them, that the homeward-bound 
vessels might, by this primitive mail arrange- 
ment, get the latest news of them, made it 
an object of deep interest. Here the astron- 
omers come from afar to observe the signs of 
the heavens ; and certainly no place can be 
conceived of more favorable for such pur- 
poses. The clear atmosphere and the per- 
fect horizon make it a place well fitted for 
telescopes to try their power. The Indian 
Ocean, opening here, spreads before the 
observer the scene of some of the most inter- 
esting events of history. Being about four 
thousand miles from north to south, and of 
equal breadth, and receiving the Ked Sea, 
holding the Persian Gulf and the Bay of Ben- 
gal, distinguished by such islands as Mada- 
gascar, Mauritius, Ceylon, and by such rivers 



124 AROUND THE WORLD. 

as the Tigris, Euphrates, Indus, Ganges, and 
hy the great equatorial current, which, after 
it leaves the wide coast of China, crosses this 
ocean to the Mozambique Channel, seeking 
the east coast of Africa, and making its way 
by the Cape of Good Hope, — this Indian 
Ocean does not yield in historic or natural 
interest to the two greater oceans. Its 
northern part, divided from the southern by 
the Tropic of Capricorn, floats the commerce 
of Europe and this country with China, India, 
and the Malay Islands. Arabia and Persia, 
and the opposite India, have used its waters 
for centuries in their local commerce. Points 
of interest along its seacoast, gulfs, and 
rivers are Aden and Mocha in Arabia, Basso- 
rah in Turkey, Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, in 
Hindostan, and Point de Galle in Ceylon. It 
seemed more like the centre of the world on 
this ocean than elsewhere. Its astronomical 
attractions and its sunsets give it a peculiar 
charm. 

Table Mountain, which makes the most 




TABL,E MOUNTAIN AT CAPE^OF GOOD^, HOPE.— page 125, 



CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 125 

prominent object at the Cape of Good Hope, 
though not the southernmost point, is 3,816 
feet high. It has a flat summit of great 
extent, and from that peculiarity in its for- 
mation it has its name. It is seen in clear 
weather fifty or sixty miles distant. You 
would think it a burial-place of kings, having 
something stately in appearance, as though 
it were a mausoleum erected by human art, 
a work like the pyramids, built by succes- 
sive generations. We sailed away from it in 
the latter part of an afternoon, reflecting 
that we had looked upon the last object con- 
nected with the continents of the other hemi- 
sphere. 

ST. HELENA. 

We came very near this deeply interesting 
spot, which for several years held the atten- 
tion of the world. We could appreciate the 
saying of the notable prisoner there, who 
spoke of himself as '' chained to this rock ; " 

for the island impresses you as a huge rock. 
11* 



126 AROUND THE WORLD. 

Very few isolated places seem to have more 
connection with the world -, for twenty-five 
vessels on an average each day pass by it, 
showing their signals, to be reported. To 
begin and speak of the place, and the 
thoughts and feelings which it suggested, 
would not be expected. We could not go 
ashore without first entering the ship and 
paying port duties ; but we had a full view 
of ^^ Long wood," where Napoleon lived, and 
where he met death. 

We resolved to go on board a British man- 
of-war which we should pass not far off. On 
lowering the largest boat into the water, the 
seams proved to have opened, and she soon 
filled. The gig which we used all summer 
in going ashore at Hong Kong was more 
seavforthy ; so we set off in her for the man- 
of-war. We took four men to row and one 
to bail, which he had to do nimbly, the water 
gaining on him, obliging the stroke-oar to 
lend him a hand. By keeping our feet on a 
level with the rail, we managed to reach the 



ST. HELENA. 127 

" Rattlesnake " without being wet, though 
we discussed the question whether a hand- 
kerchief at half-mast on an oar would be 
likely to be seen if we were swamped. We 
went and returned safely, having received 
from the ship the news of the French and 
Prussian war, three months old, and having 
also received of a New Bedford whaler some 
vegetables, which we tried to pay for in vain. 

The last point on which our eyes rested 
was the Island of Ascension, always interest- 
ing to every one at school as the most soli- 
tary-looking spot in the dreary South Atlan- 
tic. A whaler tacked and came near us ; 
two of the men stood aloft watching for 
whales. Feeling that they were the last of 
our race whom we should behold for some 
time, and with sincere respect for the hardy 
men on their ocean hunting-ground, I waved 
my hat to them, and the two caps aloft made 
hearty response. 

We soon found by the signs above us that 
we were entering the northern hemisphere. 



128 AROUND THE WORLD. 

One evening we saw, just above the horizon, 
two stars of " The Dipper." It was several 
nights before the North Star came up the 
watery hill. The poet Spenser probably had 
never sailed in these latitudes when he wrote 
of the North Star as never being below the 
horizon : — 

" By this, the Northern wagoner had set 
His sevenfold teme behind the stedfast starre 
That was in ocean waves yet never wet, 
But firme is fixt, and sendeth light from farre 
To all that on the wide deepe wandering arre." * 

But at last it came up, dripping wet, and 
inspired in us the hope of soon watching it 
from our windows at home. 

HOMEWARD BOUND. 

While it is true that as much was combined 
as could be wished for to render this voyage 
agreeable, those who have been at sea will 
not believe that we were free from the or- 
dinary discomforts or annoyances of sea-life. 

* The Faery Queene,- B. 10, c. 2. 1, 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 129 

For the satisfaction of those who have suf- 
fered in saiUng-vessels, it will be well for me 
to show the dark side of sea-life in some of 
its principal annoyances ; doing this, how- 
ever, for the sake of the truth, that the 
voyage may not appear to have been out of 
the ordinary experience of those who go 
down to the sea. 

One of the first things which we all suffer 
at sea is revealed in the inspired account of 
sea-faring experience, which we are presented 
with in the contrasted experience of being 
on shore : " Then are they glad because they 
be quiet." There are times at sea when sta- 
bility seems to be the most enviable state. 
In weariness, the invalid passenger, tossed 
and not comforted, feels constrained to quote 
one of the earliest verses of inspiration : 
" Let the dry land appear." Yet there is so 
much that provokes mirth in the midst of 
discomfort, that it is not easy to say on which 
side the balance lies, — whether of discomfort 
or amusement. Behold three men, two of 



130 AROUND THE WORLD. 

them, at least, used to the sea, setting out 
from different parts of the main cabin to 
make their way to the table in the forward 
cabin. The ship rolls over on her port side, 
and the cabin-floor is at once an inclined 
plane at a grade very much removed from 
horizontal. They have a steep hill to ascend ; 
and a seven-pound weight on either foot, 
ashore, would not be more cumbrous than 
that which seems now to be holding them to 
the floor. The sensation in trying to move 
cannot be unlike that which would be felt in 
an exhausted receiver. If the weight of the 
atmosphere on the human body, fifteen 
pounds to the square inch, instead of being 
equally diffused, could be concentrated on 
the feet, the sensation probably would not be 
unlike that which one feels in trying to get 
across a ship's deck when she is thrown over 
to the side opposite to that whither you are 
going. So these three gentlemen stand im- 
movably fixed in the middle of the floor, their 
feet discreetly wide apart to preserve the up- 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 131 

right position of the body. Then the ship 
rolls over on the other side, and the three 
travellers to the dinner-table go involuntarily 
fast to the side of the cabin, and hold on by 
a door, while the ship rolls once more, and 
comes back, it may be, with mitigated se- 
verity. At last a favorable opportunity is 
seized, and the three slide into their seats in 
postures more necessary than graceful. Then 
begins a series of mishaps at table. No care- 
ful adjustment of the dishes, nor even the se- 
curity provided for them by the racks, can 
guard against the accidents which befall cups 
and saucers, indiscreetly filled, or plates of 
soup not well provided with suitable dunnage 
of slices of bread underneath the lee side. A 
barrel of apples falls against the door of a 
locker and empties itself over the floor ; and 
a canister of lamp-oil, whose cork had not 
been made tight, follows after the apples, and 
they are no longer eatable. Oh, to be quiet ! 
What seems more desirable than a good 
foundation ? 



132 ABOUND 7 TIE WOULD. 

One day, when the ship was roUing heavily, 
it was difficult to keep your seat on the set- 
tee, and impossible to lie reclined. Every 
thing which was not lashed to some fixture 
about the room, or to staples driven into the 
floor, was sure to adopt a nomadic state, and 
go from side to side. Among other things, 
a " Pilgrim's Progress," which had been left 
on a table, fell from it and went sliding to 
and fro, exciting lively sensations in me at 
the thought that Mr. Ready-to-Halt and his 
daughter, Much-Afraid, were moving at a 
pace ill suited to the crutches of the old gen- 
tleman ; for the book went like a shuttle 
back and forth on the floor. 

The little stove in the cabin felt the 
changeable wind, and did not draw well. 
This required the frequent attention of the 
steward. He was a colored man. He sat on 
the canvas carpet whittling, to make light- 
wood to start the fire. The ship went down 
on one side, and the steward with it, whittling 
all the while, then sliding back in his upright 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 133 

position maintained with becoming gravity, 
till the passengers, no longer able to contain 
themselves, were made merry at the sight. 
This made him show his white teeth, silently, 
without any thing so undignified as a laugh ; 
at which the passengers were increasingly 
merry. 

What shall I say of the cockroaches, red 
ants, tarantulas, and mice ? One thing can 
be said in favor of all of them, — they were 
not mosquitoes. This was a nightly consola- 
tion; but it was the only good thing which 
could be said of them all. The ants would 
cover every vessel in which they could find 
any thing to drink ; fresh water seemed to 
be their chief delight ; if a sponge wet with 
it were hung up to dry, on taking it down, the 
little creatures would be there in legions. 
The white ant is the bane of the Indian cli- 
mate ; their depredations, however, are chiefly 
on shore. I was going up the front stairs of a 
gentleman's dwelling in China, when his foot 
went through a stair. " Ah," said he, " the ants 

12 



134 AROUND THE WORLD. 

have been at work here ! " But at sea we 
found the cockroaches most destructive. It 
is not pleasant to find several of them on your 
pillow when you go into your stateroom at 
night. They are harmless to the person, but 
the covers of books, and every thing which 
had been pasted or glued, all lacker work, and 
paper generally, suffer from them. Yet there 
are housekeepers on shore who can inveigh 
against vermin, as well as people at sea. 

There are some people who cannot bear 
any noise overhead at night. If the gale does 
not wake them and keep them awake, twenty 
or thirty sailors, hoisting or lowering the 
spanker, their boots making a noise not unlike 
that of horses in a burning stable, will do it. 
If the stillness of the night and the passen- 
ger's sleep are broken by the mate pacing 
the deck to keep himself awake, the heels of 
his boots will be chiefly answerable ; for these 
make the principal disturbance ; he cannot 
comfortably wear India rubbers during his 
watch ; he is to be pitied if he has a nervous 



no MEW Ann bound. 135 

passenger, and thanked if he is able to forego 
his walks for the invalid's sake. 

It would seem as though there should be a 
special punishment for those who practise 
fraud in ships' stores. Your appetite is deli- 
cate ; you have no source of supply but your 
locker; that is furnished with bottles and 
jars which profess to hold, for instance, jellies, 
made and provided expressly for sea-faring 
appetites. Your hopes of a comfortable sup- 
per are vested in a jar of jelly, which the 
steward has placed on table, hoping to pro- 
voke an appetite. On opening it, instead 
of the fruit jelly, which the label assures you 
is within, you find only gelatine, flavored 
with an extract resembling the fruit. There 
is nothing on the table for which you feel 
any desire but the promised jelly ; you find 
yourself secretly invoking a sea-faring ex- 
perience like this upon the man who has so 
deceived you, till at last your sufiering is so 
great under your disappointment, which 
grows intense as the tasteless supper proceeds, 



136 AROUND THE WORLD. 

that in sheer self-defence against this pro- 
voking ship-chandler you feel compelled to 
forgive him, promising him, that, if you ever 
go to sea again, you will pay special attention 
and see if his name is on the labels of the 
jellies. He who writes this and they who 
read it will not fail to remember that invalids 
are apt to be querulous and unreasonable. 
So small a matter as a jar of preserves dis- 
appointing the expectation of a nervous pa- 
tient, especially at sea, where there are no 
means of alleviation, may be more than a 
match for the philosophy and even religion 
of the best of men and women. 

When I have said these things, very few 
discomforts or annoyances remain which are 
not incident to almost any situation on 
shore. Many things there we are freed from 
at sea : the noise of cats at night, the bark- 
ing of dogs, the scream of locomotives, the 
painfully regular puffing of stationary engines, 
the roar of wheels, the annoyances of mis- 
chievous boys, — these you escape at sea ; 



HOMEWAHl) BOUND. 137 

all of them in sailing-vessels, for in steamers 
you have some of them. If one should 
fairly add up the comparative discomforts of 
ship and shore, would life at sea prove to 
have the most of them ? I came to the con- 
clusion that a good sailing-ship, with agreea- 
ble company, is as near a perfect state of 
rest and peace as ever falls to our lot. 

" Tarring down," as the vessel is coming near 
to port, is to a landsman an animating sight. 
Every rope in the standing rigging, beginning 
aloft, feels the smearing process, which is 
carried on without gloves. The stays which 
run between the masts at an angle of forty- 
five degrees are reached at every point by 
the boys, each in what is called a boatswain's 
chair, not unlike the seat of a swing, in which 
he is lowered at his call by a boy or the mate 
on deck, who belays him at each descent of a 
few feet at a time. Often have I watched 
these boys, suspended a hundred feet above 
the deck, wiping the rope with the sopping 
rage!, which they dip in the tar-bucket, till 



138 AROUND THE WORLD. 

they reach the deck ; and I have thought 
what a sight one of these boys would be to 
his mother, — her pet, besmeared with tar from 
head to foot, one suit of his clothes kept for 
the occasion doomed to go overboard, as 
tarring down is reserved till near port ; the 
boy feeling an honest pride as he illustrates 
in his work the dignity of labor. But per- 
haps the mother's heart would yearn toward 
her child more than when she should see him 
in " the boatswain's chair," on seeing him at 
his meals. He has no table. He goes to the 
galley with his tin pot ; the cook gives him his 
portion of tea or coffee, sweetened with molas- 
ses ; the boy cuts a piece of beef from out the 
mess-kid, gets a piece of " hard-tack " from the 
"bread barge," sits down on deck, or on a 
spare spar, lays his tin pan beside him, and, 
with his sheath-knife and fingers, despatches 
his " grub." Many, with their feet under 
rich mahogany tables loaded with China-ware 
and silver, would give it all for the boy's appe- 
tite and power of digestion. 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 139 

If there were hours when we might have 
been made afraid, it was not in gales nor in 
the raging of the sea; but in some peace- 
ful, moonlight night, when every thing was 
beautiful to the eye, we saw that we might 
have reason to tremble. If the insidious 
current should take the ship and prevent her 
from passing a certain headland, we might 
be stranded on a desolate coast, and see the 
ship piled up, a helpless thing, in the sands, 
and ourselves left to the horrors of want. 
We would be passing a forlorn place in the 
China seas, for example, and the current might 
prove more than the wind could overcome; 
we might be swept round a point where we 
heard the surf roar on the beach, and it might 
depend on a favorable change of wind in a 
few moments whether we should drift into 
deep water and go round another point, or 
whether that spot was to be the graveyard 
of our noble vessel. At such moments, life 
re-appears to you with its long-forgotten pas- 
sages, and the future seems filled with pic- 



140 AROUND THE WOULD. 

tares of woe such, perhaps, as you had never 
seen even in dreams. At times like these 
you have experience of the special care of 
God, are made to feel the practical value of 
the doctrine of a particular providence, you 
receive instruction in the nature of prayer, 
learn more lessons in faith than years of ordi- 
nary experience can furnish, more convictions 
of the privilege and duty of childlike confi- 
dence in the Almighty, such that you are 
persuaded a thousand temptations to unbelief 
cannot overcome. There are paradoxes in 
one's feelings in times of imminent danger. 
It is easy at these moments, strange as it may 
seem, to forget your own possible loss and 
sorrow, and lose yourself in thinking of your 
ship, of which you may have felt so proud, 
and which, having borne you half round the 
globe, must, perhaps, now bury her stem or 
stern ignobly in the sand, all her rich panel- 
work being made of no account by the waves 
breaking ruthlessly in through the rent sides, 
the spars and sails left free to be the sport of 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 141 

the tempest, and soon her freight melting 
away in the surge. You feel that you would 
sacrifice any thing short of life itself to pre- 
vent such disaster. And when suddenly the 
wind comes round the headland, and you find 
that you have met a favorable breeze, and 
the ship goes safely again on her way, you 
wonder at yourself, perhaps, for rejoicing in 
her deliverance equally with your own. 

The rudder afibrds a constant fund of in- 
terest when the ship is at her full speed. 
The parting and closing water makes inces- 
sant forms of beauty ; you may hang over 
the counter and look down into the wake 
for a long time, and not be weary. The 
swift rush of the water to close up the furrow 
made by the keel keeps attention awake ; the 
graceful sinking of the stern in alternation 
with the bows, bringing you down, now to a 
level with the waves, then far below them, 
brings apprehension enough with it to make 
a novice question why he has never heard 
people who have seen it describe their pleas- 



142 AROUND THE WORLD. 

ure. When night has set in, and the phos- 
phorescence happens to be abundant, kalei- 
doscopes never revealed such wonders to 
the eye. Sometimes you will be startled by 
a flood of luminous matter going past the 
ship. It is called " whale feed," supposed to 
be an accumulation of animalculae which Na- 
ture has provided for the sustenance of some 
of her offspring in the deep. " These wait 
all upon thee, that thou mayest give them 
their meat in due season. That thou givest 
them they gather." 

We had religious services every sabbath 
morning, when the weather allowed, at nine 
o'clock. Almost all hands would attend, it 
being left optional with them. On the way 
from the Sandwich Islands to China, in the 
trade-wind region, we had the service on 
deck. No preacher ever enjoyed the sight 
which met his eye in the objects around his 
pulpit more than those which were seen from 
that place of worship. Immediately around 
the speaker were twenty-five sailors, well 



nOMEWABD BOUND. 143 

dressed, wakeful, well behaved ; an awning 
was over them ; their singing was animating ; 
the beauty of the ocean scenery, the sight 
of distant vessels, the sound of the water as 
the ship went through it, contributed to the 
enjoyment of the sabbath stillness, which 
seemed to have at sea, as on land, a hush 
unlike the week-days. While natural 
scenery cannot inspire the heart with spirit- 
ual emotions, yet, when these exist, they are 
sometimes assisted in their peaceful and their 
elevating power over us by a contemplation 
of such a prospect as we had on that deck in 
those sabbath hours. We had three different 
crews in our long voyage, making in all 
about seventy men and boys who sailed with 
us. The most of these placed themselves 
under religious influences while on board : 
now they are scattered like the gulf-weed 
which went by us ; but, in the different ves- 
sels in which they now sail, they may feel 
the power of some good impressions which 
they received ; for not only on the sabbath, 



144 AROUND THE WORLD. 

but in the weekly Bible-class, they were 
affectionately exhorted by their captain, who 
added to his spiritual efforts for them kind 
instruction in morals, useful information on 
subjects relating to their calling, and to the 
younger portion of them lessons in navigation 
and practical seamanship. Several libraries 
had been presented to the ship. We had 
one boatswain who was a singer. He would 
spend a large part of an evening frequently 
in his room on his chest, with his feet on 
his bunk, a pipe in his mouth, a small hymn 
and tune book in his hand, from which he 
would sing almost all the hymns set to 
lively tunes, pausing occasionally to keep the 
pipe from going out, then beginning again, 
perhaps with the words, " Oh, how I love 
Jesus ! " '^ Say, brothers, will you meet us ? " 
the sailors sometimes making respectful in- 
timations to him that they would like to 
sleep. Some of them will be likely to re- 
member words of his hymns. But most of 
the sailors showed by contrast the value of 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 145 

early education in furnishing the mind with 
religious ideas as well as the letter of scrip- 
tural knowledge. It is doubtful whether 
" George Andrews," at his time of life, can suc- 
ceed in solving that great mystery " how an 
' elephant ' can go through the eye of a 
needle ; " though, had he begun in youth, he 
might have received instruction which would 
have at least reduced the elephant to a camel. 
Some sailors, like him, awaken affection for 
them which it is pleasant to cherish. But 
the sea-birds are hardly more vagrant now 
than they. 

May 16, at 11, a.m., we took a pilot off New 
York, and at 9, p.m., dropped anchor, having 
been gone nearly nineteen months, and, in- 
cluding our excursions from Hong Kong, hav- 
ing sailed forty-two thousand miles. All this 
time no sickness, accident, loss, nor painful 
delay had occurred. Our only regret was 
that the voyage had come to an end. 

In looking back upon it and recalling 
pleasunible seasons, those which most readily 

13 



146 ABOUND THE WORLD. 

recur to me are morning hours on deck alone 
with a Bible. I only repeat the experience 
of every one who loves the Word of God. 
The mind, freed from care, sees in the Bible 
at such times meanings which grammars and 
lexicons never can impart. Nature might re- 
veal things most wonderful at such a place as 
Singapore ; but, in a psalm read in the silence 
of the sea, there would often appear marvel- 
lous things in the language of Scripture, in 
its simple incidents, in the characters por- 
trayed or acting themselves out unconsciously 
in their trials and joys, which would create an 
interest never excited by the plumage of East- 
India birds, or coral branches, or curiously 
twisted and beautifully enamelled shells, or by 
the marvellous light on insects and creeping 
things, or by precious stones, and pearls, and 
fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, 
and all thyinc-wood, and cinnamon, and odors, 
and ointments, and frankincense. I cannot 
forget the impressions made upon me by read- 
ing connectedly all the experiences and the 



HOME WA no BOUND. ' 147 

language of the prophet Jeremiah. They 
were like the strange constellations which rise 
to view in low latitudes. I have felt among 
the wonderful things of God the truth of that 
inspired declaration, " Thou hast magnified 
thy word above all thy name." 

On reaching home, it was deeply interest- 
ing to find, at sick-beds, in stricken house- 
holds, and in circles where the goodness of 
God had filled pious hearts with thankfulness, 
that one need not travel to be filled with all 
the fulness of God. " Neither is it beyond 
the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go 
over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we 
may hear it and do it ? " I found that 'some 
who had not left home for two years, but had 
toiled in shops, and counting-rooms, and lab- 
oratories, and domestic life, had been increased 
with the increase of God. 

It is easiee to go eound the wokld thais" 
THROUGH IT. But in going through it we are 
tempted to think, perhaps, that in solitude, 



148 * AROUND THE WORLD. 

with its retirement, we can have more of 
God's presence than in the busy scenes of 
life. This led me, at the close of our voyage, 
going back with restored health to busy 
scenes, to resolve that I would endeavor to 
guard against the feeling that there are places 
or conditions to which God's presence is con- 
fined. Not in the solitudes of ocean, nor in 
rural scenes, " neither in this mountain nor 
yet at Jerusalem," need we be, to enjoy com- 
munion with God. The- thought I embodied 
at sea in these lines ; — 

PRIVATE WORSHIP IN THE CAMP OF ISRAEL. 

My God, how good to be 

In the wilderness with thee 
When Israel's tribes pursued their desert way. 

Leaving the Red Sea strand 

To find the Promised Land, 
Thou shepherdedst thy flock by night and day. 

So great a change in that one night ! 
Pharaoh no more, the God of gods was then their risen light. 

Treading the deep sea floor. 
Dry shod from shore to shore, 



PRIVATE WORSHIP 7iV THE CAMP OF ISRAEL. 149 

Tlie wall of waters piled on either hand, 

Hearing the rushing waves 

Fill up the Egyptians' graves, 
The foremost vainly struggling for the land. 

Thee would I love with all my soul, 
My heart should rove no more ; God should possess the whole. 

Encamped where Elim spread 

Her palm-trees overhead. 
With wells of water springing all around, 

Not the new-found fruit 

Would so my longings suit. 
Nor the cold water from the pebbly ground 

Could so revive my spirit there, 
As when in some still place I sought my God in prayer. 

Now moves the ransomed host 

Far from the sea-washed coast, 
And plunges deep where foot hath seldom trod ; 

And see that cloud by day 

Marking out their way, 
Guiding them safe as by a royal road. 

My God, I could not see that sign, 
And not with rapture cry, My soul, this God is thine I 

And when the night came on, 
The fading twilight gone. 



150 AROUND THE WORLD. 

Or whether storms or stars should fill the sphere, 

That pillared cloud grew bright 

With more than earthly light ; 
No need of words to whisper, God is here. 

Finding some place beneath the sky, 
My God, my very present God, nightly I'd cry. 

When manna strews the ground, 

And quails the camp surround, 
And when the rock breaks forth in living streams, 

And cities walled to heaven 

To them were freely given, 
Wonders of grace, exceeding all their dreams. 

My God, each day and hour I'd be, 
With heart and soul, a living sacrifice to thee. 

To see the words in stone 

Graven by God alone. 
To hear the voice which from the darkness spoke, 

To see the man of God 

Trail his princely rod. 
And cry, " Forbear ! my soul doth fear and quake." 

Oh, could I ever sin again ! 
Would not my soul become thy living temple then ? 

Behold the priest-borne ark 
Resting in Jordan ; mark I 



PRIVATE WORSHIP IN THE CAMP OF ISRAEL. 151 

It tarries till the host are all passed o'er, 

Then slowly leaves the stream ; 

The friendly waters seem 
Listing till every foot has reached the shore. 

How sweet to live, how safe to die, 
That wondrous ark of God before me passing by I 

But pause, my soul ! and see 

If Israel's God to thee 
Hath not approached in loving-kindness nigher ; 

What place like Bethlehem ! 

The Saviour's footprints deem 
Steps leading up to God, ascending higher. 

Hast thou forgot Gethsemane ? 
The world's four thousand years had not a Calvary. 

How hast thou loved and prayed ? 

How feared, adored, obeyed ? 
Is God in Christ less than a pillared cloud ? 

Are words he wrote in stone 

More than the Word, his Son ? 
Is not " the living way " the better road? 

Surely, whate'er thine eyes can see 
In Israel's favored lot, falls far this side of thee. 



Awake ! awake ! my powers. 
And Israel's God and ours 



152 AROUND THE WORLD. 

Love, serve, and worship with a double flame ; 

God's ancient methods learn ; 

The elder Scripture turn, 
Tracing therein the great Immanuel*s name. 

So shall thy worship perfect be, 
And both the Testaments shall shine foil orbed o'er thee. 



